Story Ideas and Coming Soons
by DaSalvatore
Summary: This is the place where I'll be posting ideas that will end up actual stories once I complete current projects. The chapters might be first drafts that end up fundamentally changed or finished pieces that kick off a new story.
1. M to the X

**AN:** **This is an AU of Son of Potter. Where Son of Potter, Daughter of Black will end on a high note, this is what would happen if it didn't. Melania and her surviving friends face new challenges in the Marvel Universe.**

 **I own neither Harry Potter nor Marvel.**

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A Fresh Start

" _ **I am the Watcher and in the reality you know, the team known as the X-Men split once the original group were rescued from Krakoa, the Living Island.**_

 _ **In another, there are no mutants but there are extraordinary people who are brought together to save the planet known as Earth.**_

 _ **But there are other, even stranger, worlds in the multiverse. Realities separated by the thinnest of curtains. Where Destiny has taken a different course than the one you know.**_

 _ **Including this one. When a group of wizards and witches are given a free pass to leave their dying world and join one with mutants. It is an act that changes**_ **everything.** ** _"_**

Melania Cassiopeia Lilith Black, sometimes known as Harry James Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, stood atop an indiscriminate mountain in the Scottish Highlands and stared down at the flooded plain that had once been the grounds of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She was one of the very last flickers of light in the darkness that had destroyed everything and almost everyone she ever loved.

The fifty-eight-year-old witch was unusual even among those born with magic. Her mother, Lily Potter, had been hit with a curse that would destroy mother and child if she ever fell pregnant. It was designed to feast upon the father's contribution first, forcing the mother's blood and magic to compensate until there was nothing left of either. Lily Potter had refused to accept that as a reality. Lily Potter had been a genius of the highest order.

She had used a combination of magic and genetics. The highly illegal Blood-Adoption potion that enabled a child to have three parents – or completely override the child's biology with a new set of donors – had been used as a starting block. The results; A child with two fathers whose magic and genes were constantly being swapped between the two in order to confuse the curse long enough for mother and child to survive.

The only question Melania had never found a true answer for was if Lily Potter knew the possibility of the Blacks' proficiency in the shape-shifting ability of Metamorphmagi affecting the process. Had it been nothing but a twist of fate? A factor that was required in the entire process in order for mother and child to survive? Or simply something else, something Lily had actually planned for? After constantly being labelled her mother's daughter, Melania came to believe it was closer to the last.

Yet the truth...the truth never really mattered.

The result was that the genetics of James and Lily Potter had created Harry, an emerald-eyed version of his father right up to his scruffy hair and propensity to get into trouble. While the genetics of Lily mixing with Sirius Orion Black had made Melania, a true snake capable of striking down her enemies without any hesitation or mercy.

The three parents that made up the unique child came from incredibly powerful bloodlines. All three could trace their roots through some of the most famous and infamous names in Wizarding history all the way up to the legendary House of Danu. The power of the Tuatha Dé pulsed within their collective hearts, as did being a Chosen of Fate. It made her a dangerous enemy and a powerful friend. Yet even a woman of her power needed a family.

Despite the hardships of her young life as Harry Potter, Melania had come into her own when Nymphadora Tonks taught the recently discovered binary metamorph – they had discovered the term for the ability to switch between a male and female form in one of the Potter's ancient text and suspected it was what gave Lily the entire idea in the first place. The connection turned to love and eventual marriage. But the world was not all sunshine and roses as both the Light and Dark rebelled against House Black's leadership of the Grey.

Rumblings from both sides had been going on for years until the first strike of what would become an endless war broken by years, at one point even a decade, of uneasy peace. The attacks had come quick and vicious with the murder of her werewolf uncle, Remus Lupin, and Dora's assassination five years after their marriage.

The secret Light and Dark Lords behind the worst day of Melania's life delved deeper into the arcane and dangerous in order to destroy each other and their mutual enemy, forcing Melania and her family to do the very same until the world itself crumbled beneath their clashing wills. Melania herself had been forced to Scorched Earth part of North America in order stop a runaway horde of demonic forces. Not that Melania cared.

She cared for very little after burying her wife and unborn child.

They did their best to save those they could and avenge those they couldn't even as loved ones continued to fall. Melania and her group fought when and where no one else would, driving back the two insane monsters who had a seemingly unending supply of fanatical followers and creatures at their command. They had refused to concede, refused to allow the innocent blood being spilt to go unpunished, but they were simply not enough.

Melania's patron Goddess would eventually come to her in a series of dreams. The protective shell Melania had built around her heart shattered at the sight of the Mother Goddess crying bloody tears as She confessed that the Earth was no more. There had been too many nuclear weapons used by the mundanes in response to the magical threats, and too much magical energies used by the other side in the never-ending war. The planet was doomed.

The Goddess admitted that the world would have survived the nuclear winter that was being currently being held back by magic. It could even have survived the rupturing of reality that the two insane warlocks had caused. But together the two dangerous forces had locked themselves into an apocalyptic spiral dance. A deadly symbiotic relationship that fed itself and was ripping the Earth apart.

The Goddess had given Melania a ritual and a place to perform it that would enable her small group to escape the dying planet for a new dimension. The runic arrays were designed in such a way that would enable the very essence of the Earth to piggy-back the journey and merge with her counterpart in the new dimension.

Melania sighed. There was no breeze to capture the air, not within the protective magical bubble that allowed her to be out in the open. She tried to imagine Hogwarts was whole, was the home and safe haven it had once been, but the putrid, poisonousness water made it difficult. The supermoon was bright enough to bring out the blood that had tainted the world's rivers.

The school itself had been long gone, dead and broken ten years before the Magical-Mundane war melted the polar ice and sent Florida hurtling free of North America. Those two events that would remove all traces of the once great castle and school.

She turned away from the first place Harry had once called home and, between one step and the next, vanished, never to be seen again.

The third most powerful being left on the plant appeared deep within the catacombs beneath the Almendres Cromlech menhir circle of Evora, Portugal. With the loss of Hogwarts and Stonehenge, the circle at Almendres was the most powerful concentration of Ley Lines left standing. It was a Lunar Standstill, the exact event the Cromlech menhir was built for, and would aid in powering the ritual.

Her dragonhide boots echoed through the caverns as Melania made her way to the sacred chamber where the last of her friends and family waited. It had been a long, hard road with an ending that promised nothing but uncertainty. Yet she couldn't stop the swell in her breast at the thought of them being together at the very end.

At first Melania's group had been horrified at the energy requirements of the ritual and there was a very real chance that she wouldn't survive the journey even with her insanely large core. She had gone through almost as many rituals to boost her power as Dumbledore and Riddle, though none near as Dark and demented as what they had used, yet she still it wouldn't be enough.

And then she remembered the legacy of the Potter and Black families and the final "Screw You" they possessed if the very worst happened. A ritual that would open up the Family Magic and pass it and its power to the other bloodline.

Her friends had been horrified at the idea of using a ritual to power a ritual but they had been forced to admit it would actually work. That was all Melania needed to know.

She finally entered the ritual cavern and looked at those waiting for her. All were ready, standing in their required positions, and all carried everything they possessed and more they had simply taken in shrunken trunks in order to start a brand new life elsewhere.

The man standing at the head of the six-pointed star had long ago lost his baby fat. Now he was a chiselled warrior forged in the fires of many battles, his short blond hair allowed his baby blue eyes to shine with the strength of character Harry had seen one long ago night when he attempted to stop a group of friends sneaking out of their common room. He and Harry were the last survivors of that quartet and the sword at his hip that had once defeated a century old basilisk had also avenged their lost friends. He was a Druid and Earth Mage, steeped in the magic and power of aeons past and known simply as Gryffindor. Dressed in dragonhide that had seen much use, he was Harry and Melania's best friend and brother in all but blood.

To his left and Melania's right was the man's wife. Her dirty blonde hair was down to her mid-back and she was wrapped in loose clothes that reminded all of their once Divination teaching. Her slender fingers were wrapped around what had once been the tibia of a half-giant. Now the bone was cored with her own hair and blood, making it the perfect staff for the Seer. Her once beautiful silver eyes had long been taken in a misguided attempt by their enemies to break her ability to See and the gaping holes were covered by a green silk cloth.

Those who escaped the fury of her best friend and future husband over her torture died a most horrible death when the woman known as Snorkack called upon the fury of the Many-Angled Ones.

Next was a slightly younger man who went by the name Atari. The boyish enthusiasm for life and magic had all but been extinguished upon the death of his older brother. It was in the same attack that cost him his family that Atari had lost his right arm. He had been taken under the wing of the Weasley twins and spent enough time in America to become a Master Technomancer. The project for his Mastery was the prototype techno-magical arm he had created to replace his lost one. The strange metallic limb did nothing to take away from his handsome features. He was their builder and their designer of all things needed to live and destroy.

Melania walked between the two who stood at the bottom of the seven-pointed star carved into the ground. The woman returned Gryffindor's hard gaze with one of her own. Simply known as War to their enemies, the blonde haired, icy blue eyed woman's loyalty to Melania fell completely into the realm of obsession. War was Melania's bodyguard, Harry's lover, and protégé to both. She had been driven mad at what was done to her family and it was only the complete acceptance by their leader that kept War from ending it all.

The other spot was taken by another silvery blonde. Far more curvy than the other women, the woman known as Flower had taken her name in honour of her elder sister who had died in defence of their Veela colony. A Master Healer, Flower had been the one to keep them all alive at some point but her blue eyes held a fragility that the rest of the strange Coven had managed to hide.

Facing across from Atari was the other male in their eclectic group. Pestilence, for where he goes his enemies fall to their deaths, was a Master Assassin, Shadow Mage and a borderline psychopath held in check by his leader's iron will. The Italian wizard with brown eyes and short brown hair was a seducer of both men and women while his laughter was known to echo long after his dance of death had brought down armies.

And if Melania was known simply as Death then the last of the group was Famine for the redhead was capable of leeching the very life out of anyone she wished. Upon the death of her aunt, Famine took up the mantle of her House and became a true Mistress of the Necromantic and Black Arts, wielding powers and spells that had even shaken the Dark Lord and it was only by her hand that the demonic forces called up by Voldemort had been ultimately defeated.

Melania stopped in the centre of the configuration where a table had been prepared. It was a perfectly square table that had been placed in the exact centre of the room with everything else designed around its positioning. On it sat items straight out of myth.

The Elder Wand, the Death Stick, sat on the north end of the table, pointing East to West. The second Deathly Hallow, the Resurrection Stone, was at the south side of the table. Between the two most infamous magical items was a smooth wooden bowl filled with blood. The third Hallow was draped over Melania's shoulders and created a connection between the Mistress of Death and her Hallows. It had been a long time since she had needed to use the objects, their power being slowly absorbed by her core the longer she held the mantle of Death's Mistress. Now it was time to give them back to their maker.

Yet it was the last two items that she knew should have been feared by the world if there was anyone sane enough to know what was about happen.

The Potter Book, given to Gwydion fab Don's first true disciple, had been bled upon by untold generations from its maker down to Harry Potter. It contained within its pages the true depths of the Potter magic, including the very methods that had forged the Hallows. On the other side of the bowl was an item just as deadly. The Black Knife, given to Gwydion fab Don's second true disciple, had absorbed and shared the power and fighting skills of all those who had let it bleed them, from its maker down to Melania Black. The two had been kept apart since their creation and she was about to combine them for one last hurrah.

There was a shift in the air just above Melania's shoulder and a raven appeared from nowhere. Muninn, once known as the owl Hedwig, was with her bonded right until the end.

The Lady Black looked around the room that was the most powerful crossing of Ley Lines outside of Stonehenge or Hogwarts, both had been destroyed decades ago. The cave was covered in runes from multiple languages, some the group could barely look at given their other worldly energies.

"It has been a pleasure to know you all," she told her last living friends and family. The Coven had bled, killed and almost died for each other and none would back out now. "We did our best when those who could have stopped the insanity did nothing. If this fails to work then I can think of no other place I would rather be in my last moments. I love you all."

The Coven wasn't given a chance to reply before Melania picked up the Black Knife but they all knew how the others felt. Some stood taller, the simple words giving them a sense of peace that had been missing for years.

"I, Lady Black of House Black, this day and this time, do call upon the Ties that Bind," her voice vibrated in the very bedrock and all across the world, the last dregs of life paused in what they were doing. "I offer my blood and magic to my brother House. As House Black falls so shall our enemies!"

She barely looked as the blade sliced open the palm of her left hand to bleed down upon the open pages of the Potter Book. Her magic healed the wound as the book began to glow.

There was a slight shift and Melania's body rippled until it morphed into that of Harry Potter. Where Melania looked like a Warrior Queen, still regal no matter the death and destruction she had seen, Harry was nothing more than a primal force of nature. An unstoppable killing machine against those who preyed on the weak. Gone was the lost boy living in Privet Drive. He was a Death-Bringer to those who caused pain and suffering.

He swapped the Knife into his other hand and looked to the ceiling once more, his voice a deeper echo of his other identity.

"I, Lord Potter of House Potter, this day and this time, do call upon the Ties that Bind. I receive the blood and magic of my brother House. As House Black falls so shall our enemies!"

Another slash and this time Harry Potter's blood poured onto the pages. The results were almost instantaneous. A single tear burst open the pages to review pure, undiluted Wild Magic, the fail-safe built into the two blood-lines activating.

The idea was as simple as it was deadly. In the event that the two Houses were falling against overwhelming odds, the Lord or Lady of one could hand the power of their House to the Lord or Lady of the other. It would be a true merger to give the remaining House the power and skills required to take their enemies with them to the grave.

Harry Potter and Melania Black had always done the extraordinary even by Magical standards. Before the ritual could truly get going, Harry swapped the Knife into his bloody hand and called out the words Melania had used, offering the Potter blood and magic to the Blacks. A second shift and Melania was barely able to accept the gift with her own blood before the book exploded.

She had managed to do the impossible. An offering of blood and sacrifice twice over before the ritual could close.

Where once two lives had lived within one body, there were now two people standing back to back. Harry and Melania cried out in pain, their arms outstretched, and it was only the lack of oxygen in their lungs that kept their screams from echoing around them. Each had a bird on their shoulder that was as caught up in the ritual as their human.

The magic expanded to wrap around each of those at the star's points and they too were consumed by the sheer force of raw power that had been released in the feedback loop. The Black Knife had absorbed the skills and knowledge of all those who tasted its edge and continued to draw it from them until their death, regardless of if they never came near the blade again. Harry was now living through the lives of all the Blacks, the Le Feys, Ravenclaws, and beyond who had offered their blood to the sharp edge. The ritual grafting those instincts and powers into his soul without affecting what made him the man he was. The Potter Book had done the same and Melania was under similar torture, absorbing the creative knowledge and skills of the Potters, Peverells, Slytherins, and beyond, absorbing it all without affecting the core of the woman she was.

The ritual was the last Fuck You to their enemies and had never been designed to be used in such a fashion. Harry and Melania were still only one mind, one soul, and each body's new experience caused the magic in the cave to increase ten-fold. The runes in the walls blazed with the light of the sun but none there could tell. The entire world of all ten beings had been reduced to nothing more than agony on the atomic level.

High above the Earth, the moon began to glow, the cold rock burning with magical flames. The power shone down on the planet and ignited the pure magical forces that made up the Ley Lines. Probabilities and reality broke down as things that could not be alive lived, only to be burned to ash, while that which lived crumbled into nothingness as they simply ceased to be.

The ritual was far more powerful than those involved had expected. It was Gaia herself rather than the aspect Danu who was pulled into the cave. It was Gaia herself that appeared on the opposite side of the ritual table. The sea-green eyes stared down at the blood boiled and twisted on the book. The blood moved of its own accord, splitting in half as it crawled out off the Potter Book and across the table until both Wand and Stone had been covered by the crimson liquid.

The offerings were the last stage of the ritual. The moon grew even brighter, a shining beacon was seen across the universe, and then was pulled into down into its host planet as Portugal erupted in a pulse of magic that destroyed half of Europe. What remained of Earth's seas went wild while tectonic plates cracked beneath the energy the Ley Lines were putting them under. The planet collapsed under the impact, its structural integrity worthless from the magical stresses, and the resulting explosion ripped through the solar system. There would be nothing left but a dark, dangerous part of space, forever uninhabitable until it was drawn into the powerful nothingness of a black hole that had been created where one small marble of a world had once been.

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oOoOo

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 _1st May (Beltane) 2008 – Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, Westchester, New York, another reality._

The Xavier Mansion and its huge expanse of land had been in the Xavier family for ten generations. The family fortune was enough to keep its current owner more than lazily comfortable for the rest of his life without a threat to the land itself. Yet the genius that was Professor Charles Francis Xavier was hard at work as the early sun began to seep through his office windows. In point of fact, he had yet to be to bed.

Professor Xavier was Headmaster to his School for Gifted Youngsters, an idea born after his days working with the CIA in the sixties. Xavier was a mutant, someone who possessed unique abilities that activated sometime after birth, and his school was focused on finding young adults in order to teach them how to harness and control their abilities.

Xavier's mutant ability meant he was potentially the most powerful telepath on the planet. But even in his youth, he knew that wouldn't be enough to shape the world's attitude. Charles Xavier had a dream, a dream of peaceful coexistence between what he called Homo Superior and Homo Sapiens, and so he had brought together a small group of mutant teenagers together in order to turn them into a group ready and willing to fight for peace between the two species. Over the course of the past five years, his X-Men had been working towards this goal when all their hard work had almost come undone. They had nearly died at the whim of an island that had somehow achieved a basic sentience.

Scott Summers, codename Cyclops, had been the only member of his X-Men to escape and the two had been forced to recruit more mutants in order to rescue those Xavier considered _his_ children. And therein lay the problem. These new mutants weren't teenagers who had gone through his school and learned about his ideals but rather adults in their own right. Adults with their own views on how the world did and should work. Now the Xavier mansion was home to thirteen mutants and their unique personalities were clashing as they recovered from the mission.

"Working all night is no way to live, Professor," a soft voice from the doorway caught Xavier's attention and he was smiling even before he lifted his head to look at the speaker.

While Xavier was paralysed from the waist down, his body was still that the athlete it had been in his active youth and even his baldness could be said to be appealing to some. One who had never considered him in that light was Jean Grey. Standing, or in this case leaning, against the door-frame at around five and a half foot with vibrant red hair that hung in waves to the middle of her back, she looked at her mentor with light green eyes filled with concern. She was wearing tight black trousers and an open-necked pale shirt that hugged her firm breasts. She had the body of someone who constantly worked out with the curves to turn heads of both sexes.

"It's the never-ending curse of being a workaholic, Jean," he answered in his low, baritone way. "You haven't slept either."

"Not a wink," she confessed, using her hip to push herself away from the wall and into the room. Xavier watched her coming with worry. Jean Grey was both a powerful telekinetic and telepath with her abilities tied intrinsically with her emotions. An emotional and tired Jean was a dangerous one.

"I monitored your confrontation with Wolverine. I'm very proud of how you dealt with him and Warren," he gave a quick smile that faded just as fast. Warren Worthing III, codenamed Angel, was one of his original X-Men and had seen the older, newer, and far more dangerous member of the team talking to Jean in the shadow of a tree. The youngest X-Man had reacted badly, something which the ever volatile Wolverine had responded to instantly. It was only luck that blood hadn't been spilt. "I know Wolverine has rough edges – he may very well prove the most difficult and dangerous student I've ever taught – but I believe the reward is worth the risk. Given enough time, and care, he has the potential to become a keystone of the team."

"I'm glad, Professor, I really do hope he works out," Jean paused as she settled on the edge of his desk to stare out of the large windows behind him. Her arms had crossed in a protective manner. "But I won't be here to watch it happen."

"The conflict between you all strikes so deeply?" He leaned back in his chair to look at one of his favourite students. Xavier was surprised. He had not expected her to be so easily defeated by the clash between the old and new members.

"Oh, Professor, you have no idea," she laughed and it was a humourless sound that caused him to frown. "I thought the patterns of my life were properly ordered but they've been smashed to bits. And one look from Wolverine crushes those pieces to dust."

She stood, restless in body as she was in heart and mind, and moved to the window. It was still dark enough that she could see a clear reflection of herself in the smooth surface and realised she didn't recognise the woman staring back.

"I love Scott with all my heart even as I can't deny the attraction between me and Wolverine," she sighed, briefly closing her eyes to look inside of herself. _Scott is my constant, the one who has been there by my side from the beginning. Yet his identity is so wrapped up in being part of the X-Men I don't always know where I fit in. Wolverine offers me freedom, a wild man to take me away from here, yet there's no sign of anything more beyond that._ She opened her eyes to stare into the brightening sky. "But that is only part of the issue. I've nearly died so many times since you formed the X-Men. Yet tonight I found myself wondering why I keep coming back for more. What of _my_ dreams and plans? For love, for a family? Are they to be sacrificed on this altar of responsibility that is being an X-Man?"

"Is that what you truly believe?" A shocked look passed across Xavier's face at her questions. He could admit to himself that such things had never entered his thinking in conjunction with his dream of the future. "Have I failed you so utterly, Jean?"

"I don't know, Professor," she admitted, pressing a palm against the still cool window. A single tear fell but she didn't see it in her reflection, her eyes lost elsewhere. "There's a whole world out there, a world to explore that knows nothing about aliens, mutants, or super-villains. This was once my home but now I feel trapped, bound here with the others. How can humanity come to trust us, Professor, if we forever hide behind these walls? If we're afraid to go out there and discover if we can make it on our own?"

"It can't," he confessed after a long, heavy silence. She heard him sigh and didn't need her own telepathy to know that her mentor was struggling with her revelation. "And I would be no better than Magneto if I kept you from those dreams, from this need."

He turned his wheelchair around to face Jean and took the closest hand in his. She turned away from the new day to stare down at him with a timid half-smile.

"I wish you well," he said, his throat tight with emotion as he realised this was a goodbye. At least for now. "And there will always be a place here, should you need it. Don't hesitate to..."

"I know," she smiled, _truly_ knowing that she could return if she needed. The two shared a moment of understanding only for it to be broken by the alarm of Xavier's Mutant scanning machine, Cerebro. Jean looked up as though able to see the threat the fantastic machine was picking up and felt a pull coming from somewhere. Something deep inside her grew warme feeling like the sun had risen on her soul for the first time in years, and she had to fight her smile from growing.

"Once more unto the breach," she whispered, looking back to her mentor. "How about one more suit up for the road?"

Xavier was about to comment when the astral plane blazed with power the likes of which he had never experienced. The raw energy caused both telepaths to cry out in agony before their minds shut down from the pain.

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oOoOo

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The Xavier Mansion wasn't the only place to have alarms sounding. Across the world, people and machines reacted as a powerful surge of energy echoed through the dimensions. In San Francisco, California, the second Baxter Building was home to the Fantastic Four, a family who had greatness thrust upon them and decided to stand up in order to make a difference. Their leader, Reed Richards, was one of the very top geniuses in the world yet even he could only watch in despair at what his instruments were telling him. The scientist had only recently become obsessed with researching the dimension known as the Negative Zone and he was forced to watch as the ripples within reality crushed that dimension from existence.

Elsewhere, men, women, and beings that might have been both or neither were reacting to the death of an entire dimension and the incoming echoes of a traveller of immense power. Psychics across the universe collapsed under the weight of power that flooded the astral plane and beings that could only be described as gods and demons stirred in unease as the playing field was forever changed.

Future friends and enemies narrowed eyes and began preparations to meet this new power that had shaken the very Omniverse. One such was a vast man who almost reached seven foot. His long white hair hung loose, framing a single sky-blue eye that saw much more than most could be understood by mortal minds. His strong fingers tightened around the hilt of the spear Gungnir and the air thickened with his emotions. Rage was tinted with fear as the Nordic All-Father stood and stormed out of his hall in order to hunt down the one known as the Watcher of Worlds.

"I feel you, Darkest Star," Odin's deep voice echoed in the undercurrent of the universe as his subjects moved quickly out of his way. "I will find you and I will kill you as I swore to do."

The Sky-Father would find it wasn't that easy and that Heimdall's vision had been temporarily blinded by the power of an Elder God.

The universe itself rippled and twisted, rewriting personal histories as people blinked into existence who were never meant to be while others faded or even fused with others to make entirely new lives. To the immensely _other_ being that watched the Omniverse and by whose authority allowed such a massive shift in reality its four faces watched as the six-hundred and sixteenth born reality duplicated itself in the same way a cell would. Another, far larger numbered reality did the same and the two new realities then merged, pulling together fragments from other realities to born a brand new one. When it was all over with, the Living Tribunal nodded as though pleased with its work.

One of the only other beings in existence that knew of the cause of the chaos within reality stood in a place that wasn't a place. A place outside of time or any other pesky mortal restraints. It was a concept that wrapped itself within the image of a beautiful, if pale, woman covered in intricate markings. A shimmering cloak kept most of her body covered and it moved as though it had a life of its own, sometimes even turning its owner invisible. The Cosmic Entity known as Death turned towards the oncoming storm and smiled. She spoke only three words but those worlds caused all the spirits within her Realm to cower in fear.

" _Welcome, my Champion._ "

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oOoOo

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 _A cave deep beneath the Almendres Cromlech of Evora, Portugal_

Dr. Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme and Master of the Mystic Arts, stood at just over 6'2 and possessed the body of someone highly skilled in martial arts.

He appeared silently within a cave and was almost immediately blinded by the blazing power emanating from the walls. Strange flicked a hand in front of his eyes and the air rippled in colour between limb and organs in order to filter out the painful energies.

"What are you doing here, Sorcerer?" a terse but very obviously feminine voice demanded and Strange felt a quick clenching of his heart when he recognised it.

"Gaea," Stephen Strange turned to look at the being. She was in a deep green dress that had a plunging neckline almost to where her bellybutton would be. If she had one as such things did not belong on a being that had never been born. The dress stopped just above her slender ankles with wide slits up the side in order to reveal shapely legs. The dark hair fell down her front, framing the large décolletage rather than hiding it. Yet for all the being's beauty, it was the eyes that held Strange. They were the eyes of the very first being that had appeared from the Primordial Chaos of the universe and Stephen _really_ didn't want to have to fight her. "What's going on?"

The Elder Gods had been chased out of their home dimension and into ones of their own creation, spreading their awarenesses and powers across time and space. In some way this weakened them as much as it did show their immense power given their eventual struggle when bringing themselves back together again. Gaea had no such issues. She was the very essence of the planet upon which Strange stood and was more than capable of drawing from the spiritual energy of every living thing on Earth.

She merely waved a hand and the intense power of the cave was pulled from the walls and forged it into a large rip in the fabric of the world. The ring of energy crackled with eldritch flame and the air rippled within the circle, only to clear to find Strange looking into the Negative Zone. His eyebrows rose at what he was seeing. _Something_ was emerging from the Crossroads of reality deep within the Negative Zone and was heading towards their world, its very presence destabilising the structural integrity of the slowly dying dimension.

"What is it that comes?"

"A Childe of mine," the words were spoken softly but the entire cave echoed with their impact. "A Fate-touched Childe that will change everything."

"I must ask, for what purpose?" Strange was polite but firm, mentally preparing himself for going up against the Elder God if she was looking to bring destruction where he had given an oath to protect.

Gaea didn't reply. The speck had been rapidly closing and Strange saw it was a body floating on its back. Walking beside the still form was a woman who could have been Gaea's sister, such was their familiar auras. This other Gaea stopped at the gateway's opening while the Negative Zone vanished as though never existing in the first place.

"Stephen Strange, protector against the Darkness," Gaia smiled as she placed a protective palm on the floating body that he could see was another woman. The body had a mass of black laying across her chest that he couldn't identify. "Meet _my_ protector against the Darkness."

And just like that Dr. Strange realised what was happening. The Elder Gods who had fled this reality did so in a way that meant they were the same Elder Gods across the whole Omniverse. But with Gaea limiting herself to a single planet, she had left all the other versions of Earth open to alternative versions of herself.

"And the Sorcerer Supreme understands," his version of Gaea announced with a smirk that did nothing to calm his rapidly beating heart. The other goddess stepped closer until the two stood side-by-side. The sleeping woman gently lowering to the ground as though an afterthought.

"You are a champion, a Defender," the other declared with a deceptively soft voice. "But sometimes that isn't enough. Sometimes a world needs something more."

"What does it need?"

"A Warrior!" The mirror goddesses declared, raising their right arms with the palms open.

There was a flash and Strange found himself back inside his New York Sanctum Sanctorum. The former surgeon took stock of his options and decided to wait and see just what the Elder Goddesses had planned.

Back in the cave, the two versions of the same deity looked at each other and took a step closer, Gaia slipping inside Gaea until the two became one. The Ley Lines, the very veins of life for the planet, pulsed wildly at the vast amounts of new power surging through them and then settled down as Gaea knelt down to wake her chosen.

The gentle touch placed palm over Melania's heart while allowing for Gaea's thumb to rest against the sleeping black bird on her chest. A sudden build up of power had the cave carved with the very same runes that the Coven had carved in their old dimension and the seven-pointed star spread out from beneath the sleeping woman. At the tips ghosted into existence the still bodies of the other travellers and then Gaea's hand pulsed, sending energy into the body of Melania and through her out to the other seven. The Elder God stood and took a step back as the Coven began to wake.

There was a ruffle of feathers as Muninn open her eyes and tried pushing the sleep from her avian mind. The familiar bond opened between witch and raven and pulled Melania fully from the realm of dreams.

"It worked," she croaked from a badly damaged throat.

"Better than you had hoped, Childe," Gaea smiled, the Goddess' fingers itching to run through Melania's dark hair as the witch forced herself to stand. Melania sore muscles felt as though they had gone ten rounds with Riddle's Crucio from Fourth Year and by the looks of the others, it appeared they weren't in a better state. "Your appearance in this world made quite a noise and will draw attention. Best to be going home in order to prepare."

"Home?" Melania snorted, working the kinks out of her sore neck. Muninn was already in her usual spot on her left shoulder. The others were silent, allowing their leader to direct how the strange meeting would go. "We don't have a home."

"You know where it is, Childe," and suddenly they did. Information for not only where they were to go but what they should do as well as what else was important to know was suddenly in all of their minds. "Until next we meet."

Gaea vanished as though she had never been. The Coven shared half-amused looks and nodded their heads as one. The cavern was filled with the pops of Apparition and then it too faded from existence, never again to be accessed by mortals.

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oOoOo

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 _Somewhere in Scotland_

The group found themselves standing in front of a small castle on a far too familiar piece of land. Far too old eyes glanced around the grounds of what had never been Hogwarts and each felt the tingle of magic beyond simple the intercrossing Ley Lines beneath their feet.

"Wards," Neville Longbottom announced as he eyed the building and its magic. "Blood wards keyed to a specific family, insanity wards to drive anyone not of the blood out of the castle or so insane it wouldn't matter."

"The ground is waiting," Daphne Greengrass through in her thoughts as scanned the area. There was a large lake off to the side that was missing a giant squid and there was even a forest behind them. "There is more magic waiting for the blood to awaken."

"Black blood," Luna Longbottom nee Lovegood announced and all turned to look at her. She stood serene with her hands clasped around Gwamp's bone and a there was a smile of happiness that had been missing from the lithe woman for years. "Claim the land, sister, and give us a home."

Melania blinked at her sister's words but that was the extent of her physical reaction to what she had heard. They had all grown to understand that sometimes it was best to follow Luna's instructions first and ask questions later.

"So, are we apparently going to ignore how we're all now decades younger than we were before the ritual?" Susan Bones asked in a tone that said she wasn't complaining on either account. The chorus of 'yes' that followed had everyone ignore the point and return to the immediate issue.

The group spread out in a protective circle with Luna in the middle and Melania striding alone and head tall to where she could feel the edge of the ward line. The Black Knife materialised in her grasp and she lazily sliced open her palm, absently noticing that the wounds from the ritual had been healed without a scar. She pressed the bleeding wound to the wards and spoke in a clear voice, using the words from their old world and silently hoping they would be enough.

"I am Melania Cassiopeia Lilith Black, Lady Black of House Black, and I claim these lands in the name of my blood."

The blood wards rippled beneath her touch and then centuries old magics stirred beneath her feet. The protection wards expanded, fuelled by the Ley Lines, and the wards hidden deep beneath the castle activated in joy.

The effects of the castle being claimed would be felt in the nearest small village and would bring excitement to those sensitive enough to know what it meant. The echoes would spread across the world to cause all those already studying the effects of the Coven's entrance into that reality to worry what else was about to happen.

The small group of survivors stood and waited for something else to happen. For an attack to appear. All bar Luna who skipped her way past Melania with a giggle that reminded her sister and husband of their teenage years.

"Well, I think that went well," Blaise Zabini snarked and just like that, the tension in their bodies vanished.

.

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oOoOo

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The Coven had no idea that the wards around the castle were similar to the Muggle Repelling wards of Hogwarts. The beautiful, if abandoned, manor was still in working order with no sign of weather or age damage anywhere unlike what anyone previously would have seen. The group worked as one to move through each room at a time, cataloguing anything of interest while still being alert to dangers. The more they saw, the more it was looking as though it could have been a small Manor for one of the Noble and Most Ancient Houses. This image was never more blatant than when they found the Master's study and the family journals within.

It only took a few hours with everyone reading that the history of their new world's Black family came clear. While they all possessed knowledge of the new world, including knowing that magic was still possible and the growing "mutant problem", a gift from Gaea according to Luna, it was still shocking to see the similarities between this family and Melania's original one.

"So let's see if we have this straight," the woman in question announced into the silence as she stared down at a number of journals that were opened to important entries. "In our reality Lord Danu created two Brother-Lines that would ultimately become the Potters and Blacks via Slytherin, Le Fey and Peverell. In this reality there were _four_ Brother-Lines who were all Apprentices of Loki, the literal Asgardian God of Magic, Mischief as well as Fire and/or Ice. All was going well until the Norns – bitches – decided to give a Prophecy outside of the Ragnarök that we know of that foretold the coming of the Darkest Star. Although no actual description of this prophecy is listed."

"Melania means 'dark', Cassiopeia is a constellation in the Northing sky, Lilith means 'of the night' and your last name is Black," Susan said the words that no one wanted to. "You are _literally_ the Darkest Star."

Melania snarled and spat out a curse in Parseltongue before continuing.

"The Asgardians, and I still can't believe I'm saying that," she shook her head and some of the others shared her surprise. "Were all hunky dory with wand users until this happened and then suddenly entire communities are disappearing off the map until only the four lines are left."

"A good strategy," Blaise interrupted in his soft, smooth voice that hid the monster beneath. "Remove allies and escape roots before taking out the real target."

The room was filled with a round of nods. It was something they were intimately familiar with both in action and having it done to them.

"Three of the four lines give up their magic while all four tie themselves to the Land and the Fae. Luna?"

"They would become protectors of the Little Fae in the same way the Lovegoods were," the dirty blonde explained, looking directly at Melania even without eyes. "Their lands would be safe havens, their magic turned inwards and becoming benign. Healers, carers, maybe even mutations now if the lines are still active. The Fae would feel safe with them."

"They became the Shield while the Blacks became the Sword," Melania nodded, knowing this was almost exactly what had happened with the Potters and Blacks of their old home. "And whatever hunters the _All-father_ sent to hunt the lines seemed to be only able to follow the magic. According to the later entries, it was only the Blacks who were still being killed off before the last decided to vanish underground."

The venom she used when speaking Odin's title was something they had only heard directed at either Dumbledore or Voldemort.

"Which means we already have an enemy," Gabrielle Delacour said with barely a hint of a French accent to indicate her homeland. "And it is a _god._ "

"But we also have an ally. Well two, really," Dennis Creevey spoke up, his sharp mind already running through the information provided. "And that's not including any of the other families if they're still alive or those we make now we're here. This entire genocide was aimed at someone who came from Loki's Apprenticeship. If the myths are true then right now Loki has had at least four of his children taken from him by Odin's desire to stop Ragnarök and this would be another attack on him."

"Four?" Neville frowned, not knowing any Norse mythology.

"Five," Dennis corrected, his voice never changing as he patiently explained. "Fenrir would be chained up somewhere, the World Serpent just discarded, Hel is forced to be the Norse goddess of Death while it's believed some Asgardians turned one of his human looking twins into a feral wolf in order to kill the other. It's unknown what happened to that child and then there's Sleipnir who is forced to act as Odin's personal steed."

"Merlin," Susan whispered, pale at the thought of a parent going through what she had just heard.

"Exactly," he nodded before turning back to Melania. "And then there's the ties between the four families and the Crown. I don't know what could be done there but we saw the benefits of that in our world."

Melania thought everything over and the others let her, knowing their leader would do what was best for them all. It had been many years since they had to worry about any self-sacrificing People Saving Thing had been an issue.

"We can't do anything about the one-eyed giant," she announced, finally, her once laurel eyes shining the same Avada colour as Harry's. "What we _can_ do is make something of this new world and actually make a place for ourselves in it. This is our chance to find some small piece of happiness and calm after everything we've been through and I'm not about to let a stuck up panicking god ruin that for any of us."

The words were spoken with such determination and power that everyone in the room knew Melania would do her very best to give them something they had believed was beyond them.

A home.

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oOoOo

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Melania had left the Coven to setting up their own rooms as well as stocking the larder with food from their trunks. While the manor house had been cared for by the magical protections, it was still centuries out of day and lacked any semblance of modern amenities. Something that was driving poor Dennis crazy.

She had decided to visit the local village that the family journals said was raised to protect the lands and had to fight down the tears when she saw how similar it was to a mundane Hogsmeade. There was even a pub where the Three Broomsticks would have been and Melania headed straight for it.

"Welcome to Arrochar Arms, lass," the barman announced as soon as she walked through the doors. The smile didn't reach his eyes but she saw something that looked like hope in their depths. "We don't be getting many non local folk 'round 'ere."

"Arrochar?" She blinked, barely away of the locals watching her with undisguised interest, unease and eagerness. _Could they know what I did?_ She wondered.

"Well it be better to yer ears tan An Tairbeart lar," one of the customers grumbled and Melania had to admit he was right. She didn't even know if she could grunt whatever it was the man had just said.

"Right, yeah," she said, shaking her head as though to clear the cobwebs. "So, I'm trying to find information about my birth family."

"Oh?" The barman's friendly mask disappeared and the emotions shut down so fast a Slytherin would have been proud to call him one of their own. "An what be de name of yer family, lass? And what yer name be, as we at it?"

"Melania Cassiopeia Lilith Black, birth daughter to Sirius Orion Black and Lily Jasmine Evans, adopted daughter to James Charlus Potter. I'm looking for anything about the Blacks that I can."

The silence that followed the run of names was charged. Some of the locals became closed off and suspicious while others shifted as though preparing to move towards her. The barman, the obvious spokesman to the village locals, spoke up after wetting his lips and taking a few hard swallows.

"Black ye sey? Well there's not been a true Dubh here since before the MacFarlanes."

"Another one lookin' for the MacDubh legacy," growled another of the locals. Melania narrowed her eyes and made to take a step towards the man only to pull herself back at the last moment. The shift did not go unnoticed.

"Yer be understandin' like, lass," the barman spoke up before her temper got the best of her. The man wasn't in tune with the lands the way his wife was but she had been excited like a kitten for the past few hours, even going so far as to saw that their people had come home. "But the legacy of the MacDubh be the very foundation of our home. We don't be speakin' it to strangers."

Melania knew this, she'd seen people like this all over the world. They were people who protected their own no matter what but she also know something that would help.

"I have fought and I have conquered..." she began what she had come to know as this world's version of the Black and Potter combined motto _Toujours pur et Toujours debout_.

"For I have been pure to my blood..."

"...and taken the blows..."

"..to remain standing," he finished. The attitude of the locals had changed with each line and the entire pub roared with delight at his next words. "Yer a lass of the Byrnes!"

What followed was an evening that eased the aching in Melania's soul. It felt as though the entire village ended up hearing that a true descendent of their patron family had come back. All were happy and offering advice with the barman, Samuel, having his wife, Gillian, cooking the entire Coven a small meal once they it was announced that Melania had friends up at the castle.

The group of friends felt something shift within them at the welcoming and knew they had find something special. It was only the beginning and would take time but the watching Elder Goddess and embodiment of Death both smiled as they watched the small village come alive in a way it hadn't for centuries.

Elsewhere there were people and organisations reacting to the ripples that the Coven's appearance had set off. While the eight members began the very first steps of recovering from the war that ended all wars, others planned to involve them in yet more struggles.

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oOoOo

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* * *

 **SN: The one aspect of this story will be what do I do as the main pairings? Harry/Mel with one person or as a multi? This is the one situation where I'll let you decide if you have a preference.**


	2. Revenge and Redemption

**AN: Since a few of you have expressed interest in my Revenge and Redemption story (Harry/Bella, Time-fic), here is a first draft of the first part of the first chapter. To those who ever wondered how I managed to merge the stories of Arthur, Merlin, Morgana and my HP stories then this will explain it.**

* * *

 _The Merry-go-round goes 'round and 'round,_

 _The children laughed and laughed and laughed._

 _So many were going 'round and 'round,_

 _That the merry-go-round collapsed._

 _May 1098 – Hogwarts Grounds_

Eight adults sat around a large wooden table inside a building that would become the most famous magical school of the land. Four pairs of sad eyes looked at the fifth member as she stared into the twists and turns of Time.

"The child of Emrys will break the son of Gwydion. He'll be put through trials and horrors to crush the shining soul and when the evil is defeated, the son will have nothing but ash and pain as his prize."

"Ro, how can we stop this?"

"By remaking Time."

 _2_ _nd_ _May 1998 – Hogwarts Grounds_

" _Avada Kedavra!"_

There was only the nothingness. His mind couldn't work out whether it was all colours or none of them as it surrounded him. He had no sense of time and so knew not how short or long it took him to realise he was laying on something solid. That thought allowed him to realise that he too was a solid being with his own body.

His mind began to come together enough that he opened eyes he hadn't known were closed and pulled his completely unmarked body to its feet. It was taller and broader than his instincts were used to but his mind had not yet reached that understanding. He was naked but that didn't seem to be a problem as he looked around the white world that was slowly fading away to reveal a familiar setting.

 _Hogwarts_. His jumbled thoughts supplied as the Great Hall built itself around him. _I shouldn't be naked in Hogwarts_. Came the next thought and suddenly he was dressed in jeans and a shirt.

Harry turned away from the raised throne where the teachers sat as the chair caused a fire to burn through him for a reason he could not yet grasp. There were five tables behind him, each painted in a different colour.

The The far right was a fiery red with the one next to it a soft orange. The middle table was a dark purple that was almost black while the next one was a royal blue. The last was a green that matched his eyes and laying on that table was a small cage containing a whimpering creature.

"Pitiful," a soft voice announced and he turned to see a woman stride into the Hall from a familiar room off to the side. The woman reminded him greatly of the Grey Lady although the sneer she wore as she glared at the creature was Snape worthy. "All the years that it was connected to you and it couldn't even gain a true mental form."

And that was when Harry's memories returned with a vengeance and he knew exactly why he was there and what the creature was. The woman eyed him as he staggered from the mental onslaught and there was a hint of pride in her grey eyes when he shook off the effects that would have sent lesser mortals to their knees.

"We have much to speak of, Harry Potter," she told him once she knew she had his attention. "Your life has been manipulated for far longer than you have been alive."

"Ma'am?"

"Morgan Ravenclaw," the woman answered his confusion. She smiled at the widening of his eyes. "Yes, Rowena is my sister and Helena is my niece."

"Is?" Harry couldn't help but ask.

"Time has no meaning for the dead, Harry," Morgan explained, softly, bringing up a hand to wave him closer. "Come, let us walk my home and left that _thing_ to its fate."

Harry was glad to get away from the part of Riddle that had been behind his scar and numbly walked beside the sister of one of the Founders. Harry frowned when he found the hallway covered in blank portrait canvases.

"Many centuries ago there was a true man of magic," Morgan began and the paintings shimmered with colour until they began to show images matching her story. "There was no such thing as Holy or Black Magic to Lord Danu, nor Light or Dark. There is only knowledge and the importance of knowing when to use what."

Harry had heard a bastardisation of the same philosophy in his first year. Riddle, riding on the back of Quirrell's head, had told him that there was only power and those too afraid to use it.

"As like most men, Lord Danu had a child and looked to raise Ekrizdis in his father's philosophy. But Danu did not realise how unique he was in not falling to magic he wielded."

"His son became a Dark Lord, didn't he?"

Morgan nodded as they stepped onto one of the staircases which gently moved to a new position.

"He did and it was he who created the Dementors as attack dogs to kill his father."

Harry shuddered at the type of mind needed to think up those horrifying creatures.

"Lord Danu locked his son up in Azkaban along with his followers and then travelled the lands until he came across two women," her voice was soft, the type that was well used to telling stories to children, and Harry found himself not needing the portraits to imagine what he was hearing. "They had no magic of their own but had the personality he had hoped for his son. So he gave them the gift of motherhood and put into each child one-half of his power.

"Those two cousins would grow into powerful wizards and found bloodlines reaching into the modern day. The two families swore oaths to protect and nurture the other as well as help guide those around them," Morgan's head turned and her eyes bore into Harry's soul. "Ekrizdis begot his own venomous brood whose sole desire was the eradication of Lord Danu's legacy."

"They were everything he wasn't and he hated them for it," the teenager added as though it was the most obvious of things. Morgan could only nod, knowing full well he was remembering his time with those he had been forced to grow up with.

"The silent battle between the three bloodlines of Danu continued down through the ages," Harry listened intently as they moved through Hogwarts with no real sense as to where they were going. Sometimes they would seem to be walking through the Chamber of Secrets, sometimes it would be through the trials of his first year. Rooms and corridors switched out in random order but all had something of importance to Harry's time at the school. "Ekrizdis' children hid in the shadows while the brother-lines shaped and changed the magical world. This all changed when both sides of the conflict became powerful names."

Morgan stopped to look at Harry and sighed, somehow making him fully aware that what was coming would be painful for the woman. He waited for as long as she needed, fully believing that wherever they were would allow them the time.

"Ekrizdis' desire for his father's true family to die has been twisted down the many years, Harry Potter," she warned him with pale eyes that glowed with intensity. "The families who seek to complete his mission have twisted that desire for their own cause and none more so than the man who took named Merlin Ambrosius."

"Merlin?" Harry squeaked, eyes wide at thought of the famous wizard not being who everyone believed.

"The mortal Camelot had been dead for five hundred years before the minor House of _Pendragon_ sired a second warlord named Uther," the disgust Morgan used to say the name easily overshadowed what the Gryffindors were known to use when speaking about Snape. "Somehow Merlin had found the knowledge of his forebears and took it into his head to recreate Camelot in the magical world. And what better way than to bring the war between the Danu's bloodlines into the open."

"What did he do?" Harry asked, never once disbelieving what he was being told.

There was something about the realm they were in that made it difficult for lies to be believed even if he didn't consciously know this was the reason for his belief. Morgan looked away from the green eyes that were so familiar to her and continued their walk.

"He convinced Uther to name his child Arthur. The warlord tried to force his own nephew into being nothing but a butler for his son but Godric was made of stronger stuff," here Morgan's lips twisted into a soft smile and Harry had a feeling he knew exactly who she was talking about. "Godric was born with enough magical power to forge his own bloodline and left what would be the second Camelot. He journeyed and came across a troubled young boy who had just escaped his own abusive home but who also had been born the sire of his own House. Godric Pendragon and Salazar Peverell, brothers until the very end."

" _Brothers?_ "

Morgan nodded as though knowing exactly what Harry thought of his ancestor.

"Together with my sister and I, a woman we grew up with named Helga and the heads of House Peverell, those you know as the Three Brothers, we built Hogwarts as not only a school but also a home and safe haven for our blood. Ravenclaw, Peverell and Slytherin were the then main Houses from Danu's twin bloodlines."

"The Potters came from the Peverells," Harry whispered as though needing to speak the reality. Morgan could only nod in understanding.

Camelot rose and I was called to help build it into what the stories say. All of us help forge the Wizard's Council that would ultimately rule over our lands. Yet for all the good Merlin brought about, his image as a Light wizard hid his true goal."

"Your deaths," Harry's mouth was suddenly dry as he began to really question why he was being told the story.

"And to do that, the great Merlin needed his most difficult foe in the way it had already been acted out centuries before."

"You're Morgana Le Fey!"

The laughter bounced up and down the stone corridor as Harry finally worked out the woman's other name. It was a laugh filled with both humour and mockery.

"Aye, child, that is the name I was called in order to split the danger to myself away from my sister."

Harry's heart clenched at the pain that flashed over Morgan's face. It was a pain he was very familiar with and one he would always be willing to fill. Self-sacrifice. The pain of hurting himself to save those he cared about.

"Merlin forged his Order of the Phoenix in order to hunt us down, Harry Potter. As have all its leaders down to your time."

"Albus Dumbledore was the leader of the Order!" Harry's world was suddenly filled with horror. His eyes were wide, his heart hammering painfully in his chest and all the questions about his life were suddenly given answers he couldn't look away from.

"The House of Black survives through you, Harry Potter," Morgana Le Fey announced and even in the strange Hogwarts her power pressed down on the air around them. " _My_ House survives through you. As does the House of Peverell, of Potter, and of Slytherin!"

"Slytherin?" The question was whispered, a plea to take back the truths he was being bombarded with.

"And so we come to the _real_ reason you survived the night you were killed," Morgana answered as her gaze bored into his soul. "The House of Evans from Salazar's Squib-born first child and the moment magic re-entered it, the curse Salazar created to kill the one who used his name as a Dark Lord ceased to be a problem. The reason you survived, Harry Potter, was because the child of Gaunt used the Avada curse on the baby who was his Head of House."

Harry collapsed on the floor, his body unable to process the thoughts his mind were coming up with. He mentally grabbed one as a life-line and looked up at the woman whose power was only now bleeding away.

"My mum?"

"Lily invoked a sacrificial ritual," Morgan explained in a far gentler tone. "This negated her ability to survive the spell."

"Dumbledore knew?" His voice was like that of a child's and Morgan knelt in order for them to be face to face.

"And it is why he wanted you to take the curse. You accepting the spell would have also negated your ability to survive. His plan was for his Order to then kill the Slytherin pretender and so wipe out the most dangerous members of our Family. With you both dead, Andromeda Tonks, Teddy Lupin, Narcissa Malfoy and Draco Malfoy would disappear and so would end the blood-lines of Danu. Ekrizdis' ultimate wish would finally come to pass."

"What do I do?"

Morgana's smirk was a dark as they came but Harry cared only for her words and the plan that she and the other seven Founders of Hogwarts had put in place for just this occasion.

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oOoOo

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* * *

 **SN: You seemed to enjoy my snippet of M to the X. Here is a partial Omake/quickie and is set during the shuttle re-entry scene that turns Jean Grey into the Phoenix. Harry is there this time and using his magic to protect them from the cosmic rays.**

 **Harry Potter:** **"Hello Fawkes"**

 **Phoenix Force:** **"That is not my name."**

 **HP:** **"Yeah well, Phoenix is more a 'what' than a 'who'. You're far too good looking to be considered a 'what' so Fawkes it is."**

 **Jean Grey:** **"For crying out loud, Harry! No flirting with the fiery being that's just appeared in our space shuttle!"**

 **PF:** **"You have Death in your veins."**

 **HP:** **"I zigged when I should have zagged and ended up beneath a sharp tooth."**

 **PF:** **"I gave you part of myself in order to live."**

 **HP:** **"And I thanked you for it."**

 **PF:** **"I don't remember…"**

 **HP:** **"I sometimes wish I didn't."**

 **PF:** **"You have been marked by Death again."**

 **JG:** **"Harry, what does she mean?"**

 **PF:** **"You are hurting yourself in order to save the one who holds my lost shard. I take her as my host and offer you a spark of my power to restore balance once more."**

 **HP: "** **Host? As in possess? Yeah, I've seen that movie and read the book, it doesn't end well for anyone. You're a multi-dimensional entity, you can't handle our wonderful emotions and stay sane."**

 **JG:** **"Harry are you arguing with god?"**

 **HP:** **"It wouldn't be the first time."**

 **JG: "…."**

 **PF:** **"Your presence here has sent a ripple through time in all directions son of Death, daughter of Gaea. Yet your words hold value."**

 **HP:** **"Welcome to the life of Harry Bloody Potter…"**


	3. Because No One Mourns the Wicked

_8th June, extremely early morning_

The island of Azkaban is a foreboding place that sucks the life and joy out of all those who saw it and this before they were subjected to the vile nature of dementors that were used as guards. Only one man had ever escaped from the terrible prison and almost a year later the manhunt was still ongoing. The Minister for Magic had set almost the entire population of soul-sucking monsters on the hunt for Sirius Black and only now the bumbling fool decided to recall them. So it was that the very man who the dementors were hungry to feast on was sneaking into the one place no one would think to look for him.

A dark shape pulled itself from the pebble shoreline and shook itself down. The Grim growled at the large prison and carefully worked its way to the front gate. His human form was wearing a number of items from the Black Vault and each one designed to have their effects carry over into an Animagus form. The Grim was as silent as death as it slipped past the changing guards and moved with speed to reach the uppermost levels where the truly dangerous criminals were kept. The canine's sharp ears honed in on one specific voice that alternated between cackling madness and wild, furious shrieks of revenge.

The Animagus paused outside of the cell of one Bellatrix Lestrange, Left Hand of the Dark Lord Voldemort, and a woman just as dangerous as her Master. The animal took in the woman's gaunt features, the way her prison garb hung loosely off her starved body. It waited until the woman saw it at her prison door and for recognition to enter those beautiful purple eyes.

Bella saw the Grim and was immediately at the bars, all trace of her insanity fading away as she took in the sight before her. She fought to reach through the bars in order to brush her fingers across the dog's snout.

"You're supposed to be long gone," she whispered in part awe, part fear and part anger at the Grim's reappearance.

The omen of death seamlessly turned into Sirius Orion Black, wanted man, and with a wand in hand. Instantly he flicked the weapon in recognisable patterns that covered the two cousins in Black Wards.

"I needed to see you again," he confessed once he was done. His shirt was open and her gaze travelled down the revealed, tattooed skin to hungrily take in his body. He wasn't the man he was before Azkaban but he still looked healthier than when he escaped. "I saw him."

"Our boy?" That caught her attention. Bellatrix's gaze locked in the silver eyes of her secret lover and he watched their depths as the dangerous witch he knew her to be rose up. "Tell me everything! How is he? What's he like? What does he like doing? Has he taken over Slytherin yet?..."

The long hair shook from side-to-side at her questions that trailed off. His reaction caused her to slow down and eventually sneer, revealing Bellatrix Lestrange the Death Eater.

"Of course not," she spat in anger. "He's in _Gryffindor_ , isn't he?"

"Dumbledore put him with muggles," Sirius told her and anyone who saw the two wouldn't know which was the follower of the Dark Lord. The fury twisted Sirius' features into a Snape worthy snarl. "They _abused_ him, love. Dumbledore knows all about it."

Her screams were those of a mother's rage, a force of nature unwilling to be caged or stopped in a quest for vengeance. Sirius was forced to wait her out even as she slammed palms and knuckles into the walls of her cell in order to get closer to one manipulative Headmaster.

"And just what do you plan on doing about this, Siri?" She demanded, once again inches from his face. Her own Animagus features giving her fangs as it rose up in defence of her child. "He's Heir Black, Pure-blood of Pure-bloods, and our _fucking_ son!"

"I'm going to get him out of where Dumbledore put him. I'm going to tell him everything," the love of her life swore. His intent fuelling his magic so that he flashed briefly as the oath locked in place. "And then I'm going to bring hell down upon those who harmed him."

The anger morphed into something else and Bella's lips became a seductive smile at the feel of Sirius embracing his birthright. She always did enjoy the taste of his magic when he was angry.

"Get me out of here," she commanded, suddenly wondering why he hadn't done so already. Her stomach twisted hard at the pain his gorgeous silver eyes became filled with and she swallowed hard at what he might say next.

"She made another prophecy," he said so softly she barely heard.

A single tear slipped down Sirius' cheek as he explained the new Prophecy and how it meant the return of Voldemort. Bella, always smarter than people gave her credit for, connected the dots far quicker than his words explained and she was looking at her Dark Mark before he finished.

"Did you bring it?" She asked, immediately deciding on her only course of action. Sirius nodded through his tears and brought out from his robes a small necklace with the House Black coat of arms. He slipped it through the bars with a shaking hand and pain-filled eyes. "It's the only way, my love."

He didn't react to her words. He couldn't. Sirius Black, infamous lady's man watched in horror and with pride as his true love put on the necklace. Bella held the amulet in one hand and began a complicated chant that caused a glow to shine from her clenched fingers. The necklace was a Black heirloom, a special piece of jewellery designed for safekeeping the legacy of the family when someone needed more time than they physically had.

Bella Black poured her everything into the carefully crafted necklace. She gave her thoughts, memories, feelings and even a good deal of her magic to the amulet knowing that it would be given to the brightest star in her life by the second brightest. When the transfer was complete she took it off and wrapped it carefully around the hand that was still reaching through the bars.

"You know it has to be this way, Siri," she whispered as she pressed herself against the bars to be as close to the man she wished could be her husband. "I refuse to help him hurt our son but my Mark won't allow me to walk away. It's down to you now."

Somehow the two star-crossed lovers managed to kiss. It might have only been a small press of lips but the emotions behind the contact were everything to one of the last surviving members of House Black.

"Make sure he knows mummy loves him," she pleaded, her control finally breaking as the tears fell.

"He'll never doubt it," was the promise. "Close your eyes, my darling. It's time to sleep."

She did with a smile at the tenderness of the words. Words that had been said in another life when the two were able to be together. She never saw the agony on his face as he whispered two more words.

 _Avada Kedavra_

Bellatrix Lestrange was no more and her death heralded a change in the Wizarding World that would echo down through time.

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oOoOo

* * *

 **AN: This is a snippet of the beginning of a Dark Harry and Dark Sirius story. The forbidden love between Sirius and Bella might not have been supported by James, but he didn't turn his best friend away when Sirius asked the Potters to take their baby until the end of the war.**


	4. When a Good Man Goes to War

**AN: Yes, the title of this story and the new Prophecy is a take on Doctor Who's A Good Man Goes to War. No, I don't own the rights to the good Doctor.**

 **If you're wondering where all these snippets come from, they're to show that I haven't disappeared even if Son of Potter and my other stories are having their chapters delayed in writing/posting. By the way, I'm more than open for a Beta to keep me on time with posting if someone is interested. And to those who ask; everything posted here is done with the intention of actually writing the stories they're a part of. Eventually.**

* * *

 _1st June 1993 – Hogwarts, late at night._

All hail the conquering hero? Not quite. Not at all.

It had been roughly two days since Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and the fraud of a Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor Gilderoy Lockhart went into the Chamber to battle a basilisk. Two days since Harry had faced off against the shade of Tom Riddle, aka Lord Voldemort, and almost died to the basilisk's venom. Two days since he had rescued Ginny Weasley, two days since Harry and Ron's actions brought about a Gryffindor House Cup victory and two days since those petrified by Slytherin's monster had been revived.

In those two days, Harry had been unable to rest as two scenes kept repeating in his thoughts, caught on loop in his mind like one of Petunia's vinyls having a scratch.

 _The two boys sat alone in the Gryffindor Common Room, each lost in their own thoughts as they tried to come to grips with the fact that Ron's little sister had been taken to the Chamber._

" _She knew something, Harry," Ron said, breaking the silence he had fallen into since hearing about Ginny. "That's why she was taken. It wasn't something stupid about Percy at all. She'd found out something about the Chamber of Secrets. That must be why she was...I mean, she's a Pure-blood. There cant be any other reason."_

"Because it's only the Pure-bloods who matter, right Ron?" Harry sneered as he stared at one special sink in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. He had no idea that his words had slipped into Parseltongue half way through.

 _There was almost nothing but silence in the Chamber. Only the drip-drip of ink leaking out of the cursed diary broke the heavy quiet. Shaking all over, Harry pulled himself up and gathered up his wand and the Sorting Hat. He carefully reached out to grab hold of the sword and pulled it from the roof of the basilisk's mouth. He felt weak and he was only holding back the shakes by sheer force of will. Yet Harry was still able to take a measured look around the partially destroyed Chamber. His gaze looked towards the mouth of Slytherin's statue and he could feel something stirring inside him when he looked into its darkness. A sense of somehow being almost complete as though something within was calling to him. Meant just for him. Harry was about to step towards the open jaws when a faint moan broke the trance he had been in. Ginny Weasley was coming around._

Harry ran his fingers over the snake motif that signified the entrance. Whatever had drawn him to those dark jaws of Slytherin's statue had refused to leave him completely and with everyone asleep, he knew it was the right time to find out what those shadows held.

 _{{"Open"}}_ He commanded, stepping back to watch the sink move apart to reveal the slope that the basilisk had used.

Harry was unaware that Dumbledore, immediately after hearing what happened beneath the school, had placed a monitoring charm on the sink. When Harry commanded it to open an alert was immediately sent to the Headmaster's office and a powerful Confundus Charm activated.

Dumbledore's plan was simple. Wait until Harry got curious, have the Confundus send the boy away and so leave the opening to the fabled Chamber free for him to explore. He never knew that Harry's mind was easily able to throw off powerful compulsions as though they weren't there.

Harry didn't even notice the spell's attempts to confuse him so was his intense focus on his task. A whispered _{{"Stairs"}}_ had the slope quickly transfigured into easily manageable steps. The Gryffindor Golden Boy began his descent into the dark and only stopped long enough to command the sink to close behind him.

When Dumbledore came running through the bathroom's entrance not five minutes later he would find no entrance and no Boy-Who-Lived. He quickly checked his connection to Hogwarts' wards only to be told that the boy in question was sound asleep in his dorm.

Hogwarts looked after her own.

Somewhere else in the castle slept a woman considered by most to be nothing more than a fraud. A partial Seer with no real way of controlling her Sight, Sybil Trelawney was more a Prophet than Seer and as such had little choice when her legacy activated. She had given a true Prophecy many years previous and Albus Dumbledore made sure to keep her around just in case she made another.

The great and powerful Dumbledore never thought that the Hogwarts Divination Professor might give a True Prophecy when she was asleep and so his monitoring charms never registered when her lips began to move and a raspy voice spoke through her.

" **Demons run when the Child of the Snake goes to War. Night will fall and drown the sun when the Child of the Snake goes to War. Friendship dies and True Love flies, Night will fall and the Dark shall rise, Lies are revealed and Betrayers dies when the Child of the Snake goes to War. Demons run but count the cost; the battle's won but the child is lost...when the Child of the Snake Goes to War."**

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oOoOo

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Harry used a _Lumos_ to light the way down the many stairs and past the basilisk's shed skin. He barely stopped at the cave in, driven on by something deep within that he couldn't name. The snake covered door to the Chamber opened upon command and Harry was once again facing the dreaded Slytherin Monster.

Without the adrenalin running through his body or his life in danger, it was with sadness that he took in the huge form of the King of Serpents. Harry couldn't help but remember another snake years previous that he had encountered. That time he had managed to free the boa constrictor yet now he had been forced to kill its mighty brethren.

Harry moved closer, his lit wand still held high in his right hand and placed his free palm against the cold scales.

"I'm sorry," he offered the majestic creature as he reverently stroked the corpse. "I wish there had been another way."

Harry was once more pulled away as the draw towards the heavy shadows intensified. There was no fear in him as he raised his wand high and stepped into the statue's open mouth. The stench of a thousand-year-old basilisk nest seemed to wash over him and he had no idea that his eyes had taken on a bright green glow as he moved deeper into the stone tunnel. It didn't take long to reach the end and Harry frowned at the smooth wall that he now faced. The pull was stronger than it had been before yet seemed to be coming from somewhere off to his right. Harry turned to and caught sight of something that caused his breath to catch in his throat.

Caved onto the tunnel wall was a large and intricate carving of a large dog. _A Grim_ he remembered from reading _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_. Yet it wasn't the lifelike image of the beast that caused Harry pause and for his eyes to water. Instead it was the vine that wrapped up the grim's front leg. The thorns cut into the great beast's fur deep enough to cause blood to drip down but the animal appeared to pay no mind. Not when the lily at the top was nestled so carefully beneath the animal's chin.

The entire thing might have been a single image but there was an obvious sense of love and protection in the way the Grim was connected to the flower. Harry didn't realise he was reaching out to the carving. He didn't understand what the grim was about but he could think of only one reason why that particular flower was here.

Somehow, some way, Lily Evans, his mother, had been down to the Chamber of Secrets.

Harry's fingers traced the vines. The moment skin touched the carved thorns there was a pinch and he hissed, pulling back the bleeding tips to suck the wounds. The wall absorbed the blood and then the entire carving appeared to melt away in a fashion not dissimilar to the wall into Diagon Alley. What was revealed took Harry's breath away.

The room was larger than the Dursleys' living room and obviously designed to be an office cum lounge. One section had a large, old style and extremely heavy looking desk that was almost buried in parchment. Opposite the writing area was a set of cauldrons of various metals waiting to be used. The potions area was meticulously clean in stark contrast to the desk. Almost the entirety of the rest of the room's walls was taken up by bookcases filled with tomes of numerous colours and thicknesses. A fireplace burned along the left-hand wall and surrounding it in a loose arch shape were comfortable looking chairs and sofa. Above the fire was a large portrait with its occupier staring back at Harry with the exact same Avada eyes he saw in the mirror.

"You must be Lily's boy," the man said in a voice similar to Snape's. Where the hated Potions Professor drawled as though the one he spoke to was beneath him, this man came across as though he knew something you didn't and found it incredibly humorous. His hair was long and black, looking almost as uncontrollable as Harry's, and he had a sly half-smirk twisting the corner of his lips.

"Harry, sir," the simple act of hearing his mother's name had Harry moving quickly to the painting, desperation at speaking to someone who knew her clear in his bright eyes.

"Yes, named after Harold Godwinson. Edward the Confessor's named heir and the man whose death brought an end to the rule of House of Wessex over the lands," the man shook his dark mane of hair as though to clear his head of troubling thoughts. "Forgive me, little man, allow me to introduce myself. I am Lord Salazar Antioch Peverell, the first to carry the name Slytherin, and nephew to Antioch Peverell from whose line comes the Potters. And you...have no idea what any of that means, do you?"

Harry was initially blown away by finding out just where his name came from only for the shock to rise when it was announced the man talking was actually Salazar Slytherin. To then find out that he actually _was_ a descendent of the Dark Founder caused the twelve year-old boy's brain to freeze. All he could do was ask the first question that popped into his stuttering thoughts.

"Why don't you look anything like those statues outside?"

Salazar's eyes narrowed and Harry was sure he had angered the Founder when, to his surprise, the man then threw his head back and laughed. "That was the first thing young Lily asked me!"

Harry took the chair facing the portrait and simply stared in awe at the man who was his many times removed grandfather. There was certainly a resemblance, made even more obvious by the eyes, and the feeling of finally having family pushed away any reservations about who the man was.

Salazar stared down at Lily's child and picked up on all the non-verbal cues the boy gave off. The painting was connected to the Hogwarts wards as well as those within his old chamber so Sal knew much of what Harry had been through in his first two years at the school. What worried the Founder was what the boy had gone through before he came to the hallowed halls.

"Young Harry, I would like you to tell me about your life," there was a small amount of magic in the words that was amplified by the wards of the room. It wouldn't force the boy to speak, merely make him more willing if he was inclined to. "Tell me of before Hogwarts and what you believe you know and don't know of the magical world."

No one had sat Harry down and shown a real interest in him before. Even the teachers would only make a passing comment on how he was like one of his parents and then move on, never thinking that Harry was his own person. Yet here Harry had family of sorts, a family who not only looked willing to speak about his mother but also seemed interested in _Just Harry_. The slight compulsions in the air were completely unneeded as the Boy-Who-Lived unburdened himself of his life story.

Salazar listened and asked probing questions when the situation called for them but kept his true feelings over Harry's life hidden. When Harry moved on from the nightmare that was his childhood and into Hogwarts, Sal made sure to listen more to everything others had said and done than his descendant's actions. Only when Harry wound down to explain the deadly fight with his basilisk did he interrupt.

"I thank you for putting Slinky out of his misery," his sigh showing the pain of the reptile's death. "Tom Riddle had put a geas on Slinky so that he _had_ to obey his commands."

" _SLINKY?_ " Harry half-coughed, half-screeched, remembering back to a giant three-headed dog by the name of Fluffy. "You named your basilisk Slinky?"

"Of course I did! It made Rowena's month when I came up with that name."

"You and Rowena Ravenclaw..."

"Oh gods no," Harry laughed at the shocked and slightly pale look Slytherin gained at the thought of being in a relationship with his fellow Founder. "She was my sister in all but blood, Harry. She had a very harsh life and I was always doing my best to make her laugh."

Harry's two year image of the evil Salazar Slytherin completely shattered at the sheer intensity of love the Founder's portrait radiated at the thought of Rowena Ravenclaw. He was so shocked that he missed the shift of mood in the man's green eyes.

"And speaking of harsh life. I feel I must speak to you about something before we move onwards," Harry looked away, sure that the man would start poking at his raw emotional wounds, only to snap back with shock at what was said next. "I dare say our bodies share many of the same scars. As I introduced myself, I am originally from House Peverell through the Cadet branch. The history of this country is filled with blood and death and the time of my birth was no exception. Wars were being waged by both Magical and Vernaculi as to who would rule the lands."

"Vernaculi, sir?" Harry's question was barely asked so caught up with what Slytherin was hinting at.

"Ah, yes, Lily said they were called 'Muggles' for her and I assume that's still the case?" At Harry's nod he continued. "That word comes from 'Mug' - yes the drinking container – and relates to the face but also became another way to call someone a fool. Every time a Magical calls someone a Muggle they're saying that person is a gullible and ugly fool."

Harry was disgusted by the information. The only people he knew who would fit _that_ description were the Dursleys. He promised himself to make sure Hermione knew not to use the term when referring to herself or her parents.

"Vernaculi comes from the Latin vernaculus, meaning 'native' and that's what non-magicals are. The natives of the land," the Founder stopped until Harry nodded that he understood. It was easy for the boy to see the other man as a successful teacher in the way he spoke. "Now my village was attacked and all the adults, magical and non alike, were killed. I was sent to live with another member of House Peverell who was a vile and twisted man. He wanted the Peverell Lordship for himself and saw my claim as yet another reason why he wasn't close to the then current Lord. That animal knew both mundane and magical means of hurting someone and he perfected them all on me."

Slytherin gave Harry no details but the man's icy tone and stiff body posture was clear enough. Harry gave a heavy sigh and looked to the floor to hide his tears, the last barrier between himself and the portrait crumbling at the knowledge he didn't have to hide anything of his life. It was a gift beyond description that only the elder man would have understood.

"I will not ask you to tell me everything, Harry. Rowena was my confidante and not even the other two knew the things I shared with my sister. If you ever find yourself in a position to trust another with your pain then do not be afraid to speak of it. I know from experience that it helps."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. And now there is something else we must speak of. Your mother," Harry's head snapped up and there was desperation in his watery gaze. "I must warn you, young Harry, that the Lily Evans I know is not the one you would hear from those in the school above. Right now you have an incomplete image of your parents but it is still a good image. All I can give is the unvarnished and harsh truth."

Harry could tell Slytherin was serious and, more to the point, was promising Harry that there were many things that would be painful for him to learn. Yet there simply wasn't a choice for the second year Gryffindor. The truth was far too tempting for a child who had been in the dark about even his own name.

Salazar saw the decision before the boy even verbalised it and wasn't surprised in the slightest when Harry gave his answer.

"Look in the top right drawer of my desk and you'll find some aid," Harry moved quickly and was soon looking down at a small, nondescript notebook with a glittering silver chain laying beside it. The jewellery was the first thing he brought into the light. "That necklace and its sapphire are enchanted to protect your secrets. As long as you're wearing that you can't be forced through any means to reveal something you don't want to. You'll need to wear that from now on."

Harry could only stare at the necklace and then back at Salazar. He had no doubt that there were many ways magic could make him reveal things and the Founder seemed to be promising he would learn what others wouldn't want him to know. It was only once the chain was around his neck and hidden beneath his shirt that Salazar continued.

"Good. Young Lily wore it until she was able to defend herself. Now, the slightly discoloured wall to your right is an opening much like how you entered this room. Hogwarts has many secret passages and, while the exits are all locked in place, the passageways themselves are not. If you place your hand on the wall and think of where you wish to end up the castle will then open the way for you. You'll be able to come back to this room the same way."

Harry's eyes lit up at the ability to sneak around Hogwarts at will. If he used the tunnel with his cloak there was no way he could get caught out of curfew.

"The book is your mother's journal, Harry. She began it after her first shopping trip to Diagon Alley and continued it up until she died. It was charmed to return to the desk upon her death."

"Why, sir?"

"Because she, and you, aren't just of Slytherin blood," Salazar smirked and the look allowed Harry to finally see the characteristics his House was infamous for. "She was of my direct blood. The blood of my first born runs in your veins. You truly are my heir!"

The Founder laughed at Harry's gobsmacked appearance but the humour was quick to vanish as he returned to the book.

"It's also her Grimoire but the diary portion is what you need right now. There are lies and deceits surrounding your life, Harry, and her words will do more to explain than I ever could. I warn you now, some of it won't be easy to read but I'll be here when you're done."

Harry gingerly lifted the journal out of the desk. It was the most precious thing in the world to the boy as well as one of the most deadly. What if it held secrets that would hurt him? The fear over what Salazar was hinting at threatened to consume him yet it ended up being consumed by a single thought. _It was his mother's journal!_

Salazar watched as Harry moved to the wall and asked for Gryffindor Tower. The Lord of Serpents knew that the next time he spoke with his heir it would be a completely different conversation.

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oOoOo

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 _Selected entries from the Diary of Lily Evans_

 _1971-72_

 _I couldn't believe some of the stories being thrown around to scare us First Years. Wrestling a troll? A magical duel with some long dead mythical sorcerer? All we had to do was wear a bloody hat!_

 _The Sorting Hat is amazing. I wonder if it just reads minds or if there's something deeper going on. It wanted to put me in Slytherin, that the "House of my eyes" would allow me to achieve greatness, but couldn't. In all the things Sev told me about Hogwarts and magic he didn't once mention I would be a second class citizen because of my parents!_

 _The Hat apologised for not being able to put me in Ravenclaw. Apparently that House is falling to the bigots too and I would live the longest as a Gryffindor. I asked if it could put Sev in Gryffindor too and it promised to give him a chance._

 _Apparently my friendship isn't worth enough to face the lions. Sev ended up in Slytherin._

 _Now if only I can find out what the Hat meant about the House of my eyes!_

 _oOoOo_

 _Magic is amazing! There's so much that can be done and my classes have only started. Potions makes so much sense to me and Professor Slughorn seems impressed when I go to one of his open sessions and start tweaking a recipe. Sometimes it comes out like cement but I think he's happy that I'm trying._

 _It's Charms that I've fallen in love with. Professor Flitwick is such a lovely man and the subject is fascinating. That boy Potter looks to be a natural at Transfiguration but that's not a surprise considering how many rules he loves to break. Professor Flitwick explained to me how Charms is making reality fluid, to make the impossible possible through skill rather than the power Transfiguration needs._

 _A scalpel versus a sledgehammer._

 _I'm glad I never told anyone that I could talk to snakes. Dad would be horrified at the level of bigotry in Gryffindor and I worry what would happen if anyone found out I was a Parselmouth._

 _Gah. I can't stand Potter! The idiot turned my hair pink! Pink! That's Tuni's colour!_

 _oOoOo_

 _The quiet boy Lupin looks like how Sev does after his father drinks. Those two have a lot in common if they could only see past the Gryffindor/Slytherin anger. I just don't understand Potter. How could he attack Sev over his clothes when he's befriended Lupin?_

 _I wonder what the ponce would think if I told him his new friend was a werewolf..._

 _oOoOo_

 _The exams are coming up soon and I need to focus. Had a strange talk with Sirius Black earlier that's completely thrown me off..._

 _He "says" that the only reason he's with Potter on all the pranks is to try curbing Potter's ruthlessness. Sirius said how his grandfather and Potter's father are best friends and that Lord Potter is nothing like his son. That Potter's mother is even Sirius' great-aunt so he knows how the prat would have been brought up._

 _He brought along one of the older Slytherin girls. How did he get away with this without Potter's "everything Slytherin is evil" attitude getting in the way?_

 _Narcissa Black is so beautiful! She backed up everything Sirius was telling me. Apparently the Blacks and Potters want to know what is wrong with Potter and think it has something to do with how often he's talking to the Headmaster in private._

 _I asked him about the horrible howler his mum sent him after he got into Gryffindor. Apparently his immediate family is falling for the Society for Blood Purity's message and want to follow their leader. Some Lord Voldemort (such terrible French!). Lord Black and the other Blacks are trying to stop them._

 _It all sounds so convoluted and silly but dad told me about the war. He told me how easily Germany fell to Hitler's rhetoric and now I've found out that it was happening to the Magicals as well._

 _I'm scared. Miss Narcissa said that she'd be there if I need someone to talk to._

 _oOoOo_

 _1972-1973_

 _The summer was fun and I missed my family but I'm glad to be back at Hogwarts. I spent a lot of the summer talking to Sev trying to get him to be the better man to Potter but the prat's actions remind Sev too much of his father._

 _Cissy is a lovely girl. She's really helped me understand more about Sirius, the politics and why the hat was right in keeping me out of Slytherin. She thinks I wouldn't have survived to graduate if I'd have gone into that House. She's also promised to look after Sev this year. Apparently her betrothed (really? Marriage contracts?) Lucius Malfoy isn't as twisted as some of the other Blood Purity followers. He'll take Sev under his wing even though Malfoy and Cissy are in their last NEWT year._

 _Professor Flitwick has invited me to start doing extra classes with him like I do with Professor Slughorn. I'm going to be taught one-on-one by a Charms Master!_

 _Speaking of Potions...I found out how to check what the Hat meant about my eyes. There's a potion I can make that will reveal my entire magical family tree. I'll brew it in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom since no one goes in there._

 _oOoOo_

 _Myrtle isn't that bad once you get past the tears. She's a girl stuck in that horrible place where hormones are running wild (I can't talk. Some of the other girls in my year are way ahead of me in that area) but I did learn something interesting._

 _Her name is Myrtle Warren and she died in 1943 when someone opened the Chamber of Secrets. Myrtle cried for ages when she told me that everyone thinks Mr. Hagrid was the one who killed her. I think she fancied him._

 _All she saw was large yellow eyes. Slytherin was a Parselmouth. Could it be that it was a basilisk? I really hope that its dead by now!_

 _oOoOo_

 _Oh. My. God._

 _The potion worked! It worked and now I don't know what to think._

 _It makes sense._

 _I can talk to snakes. The Hat must have meant I have Slytherin's eyes._

 _I'm a direct heir of SALAZAR SLYTHERIN!_

 _I don't know what to do._

 _oOoOo_

 _I had to talk to someone. I cried all over Cissy when she found me. She agrees that I can't tell anyone else. She says that people will try to recruit me or hurt me or worse. I think she's planning on making sure Sirius looks after me now._

 _oOoOo_

 _I found the Chamber._

 _It's not really hidden, not when the basilisk's last victim haunts its entrance._

 _I also found the basilisk._

 _Thankfully Parselmouths are immune to its gaze. Something about the magic which connects the magical to the magic of snakes also provides protection against its animals. I still wouldn't want to be bitten by the thing!_

 _How do I know this? I found the portrait of Salazar. He's a lovely man and explained how it was him who told the Sorting Hat (Sebastian!) to put me in Gryffindor so that I wouldn't be hurt._

 _Salazar promised to help me with my classes. He also told me how Voldemort is really Tom Riddle, a descendant of Professor Slytherin's from a distant branch, who looked to take over his basilisk. As long as this Riddle doesn't come back then Slinky (I know right!) won't want to hurt anyone._

 _I can't look at Potter without laughing. Apparently the Potters are even closer to Slytherin's bloodline than this Voldemort is._

 _I wonder what the Purists would say if they found out a "Mudblood" was the true heir compared to the man they follow._

 _oOoOo_

 _Sirius knows! He went to find out how Sev is doing from Cissy (apparently Sev's mum is from a really prodigious family and the other Houses should be stepping in to help Sev but they aren't) and she told him about my heritage. She got him to take a Wizard's Oath not to reveal it to anyone but doesn't regret telling on me._

 _Apparently I need someone to watch over me in Gryffindor. Now if only I can find a snake to sweet talk into biting Potter!_

 _oOoOo_

 _1973-1974_

 _It's so strange to be in Hogwarts without Cissy sitting at the Slytherin table. She's keeping in touch to make sure I'm okay since the Blood Purity issues are getting worse. There's a lot of attacks happening now and everyone is becoming more extreme. Both the "Light" and the "Dark" are making it a 'with or against us' situation with people not of "Pure" stock caught in the middle._

 _I'm going to spend more time with Professors Slytherin and Flitwick to keep away from all the chaos. I only hope Alice does the same since she's following Frank Longbottom around like a puppy._

 _Sev's father went too far in the summer but he apparently died of a heart attack the day we arrived. Cissy hasn't told me outright but I think her fiancée did something after I told her how badly Sev was hurt. I don't feel bad that I could have caused his death and I'm okay with that._

 _Apparently Potter is taking special classes with Professor McGonagall and the Headmaster. Salazar says that the castle is telling him that Dumbledore is doing something to Potter to make him even more anti-Slytherin than he would be. I've warned Sirius that things might be getting a lot worse. I tried warning Sev but he's not listening to me as much. I think the other Snakes are whispering in his ear._

 _oOoOo_

 _I'm having to wear a necklace Professor Slytherin gave me. It keeps people from forcing me to reveal secrets. "Cassie" warned him that the Headmaster seems to be starting to take notice of me and the way Potter is following me around like a fool._

 _I've taken Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. They're amazing subjects and should keep me going for the next few years._

 _oOoOo_

 _So apparently the other "Marauders" have found out Remus' little secret. Bloody took them long enough! Now the idiots are looking to make themselves Animagi to join Lupin during the full moon._

 _Have I mentioned yet how idiotic they are?_

 _Sirius promises to help me achieve my own form once they've worked out the kinks in their process. I spoke to granddad Sal who then gave me the entire method that isn't some convoluted scheme. If Sirius is nice enough I'll give him some hints when he tells me how badly they're screwing up._

 _oOoOo_

 _Something strange is going on. I'm doing exercises to awaken my magic and now I'm beginning to see flashes of things that haven't happened yet. Granddad Sal thinks it might be a bit of the Sight and has given me some work to develop it. Apparently if I don't then it could drive me crazy but if I do then I should be able to control it._

 _It's Hogsmeade weekend and Potter tried asking me out in front of almost all the other Gryffindors. Sirius didn't look happy but he laughed the loudest when I explained to the prat how it would be a cold day in hell before I went out on a date with him._

 _oOoOo_

 _Professor Flitwick is taking me as a secret apprentice. That's now Sal and four subjects I'm doing extra work in. I've just got to make sure to not outperform the other students too much in class._

 _oOoOo_

 _Headmaster Dumbledore had me in his office. He wanted to get me to calm down with Potter. Something is wrong. I've got to be careful._

 _Maybe I should let Cissy know?_

 _oOoOo_

 _Those idiots are trying to use personality quizzes to find their Animagus forms!_

 _oOoOo_

 _Sal is teaching me as much of his magic as he can. He's shown me a secret room where his portrait can be given a physical body so we can do some practical sessions._

 _Not like that!_

 _He's worried that people are starting to take notice of me. Apparently all of the Founders sacrificed the magic of their first borns in order to embed their own magic and power into their bloodlines. He said it goes beyond simply Family Magic and would be perfect to keep me safe. The problem is that I can't do the ritual._

 _I keep seeing a boy. He has my eyes, the Slytherin eyes, and he's in terrible danger. His life is horrible but I can't See how and I know that this is my son. I won't go through the ritual if it means my own son will suffer later on. I'd much rather suffer myself and know that my child can be protected with the ritual when he comes to Hogwarts._

 _Gah. I'm almost fourteen and I'm already having to think about my future child. Weirdness!_

 _oOoOo_

 _Dumbledore keeps pushing me to be friends with Potter. Apparently a Pure-blood of his standing should protect me from the horrors facing "Muggle-borns" out in the real world._

 _I wanted to shove his Muggle-born comment so far up that crooked nose it came out of the top of his head. The only way I kept quiet was running through all the curses Sal and I have worked on._

 _My projects and extra classes are keeping me busy. I'm also a leading member of Professor Slughorn's Slug Club. Honestly the man has no creativity. At least it gives me a chance to talk to Sev without Potter hanging around._

 _I have to admit that some of his Purity friends have good arguments. Certainly not about Blood Status but the degrading of traditions? That I've seen for myself. Hell, Hogwarts celebrates Christmas and not Yule, Halloween and not Samhain. No wonder why the Dark and the Purists have fallen into bed with each other._

 _The end of year exams are coming up and then I go home. I hope Petunia isn't going to be in a mood when I get there._

 _oOoOo_

 _1974-1975_

 _Hogwarts and the magical world is becoming more of a home than home is. I couldn't wait to get away from Petunia's arrogance. I wonder if I can get her to meet up with a Death Eater and see who superiority wins out? One can only dream._

 _Sev is convinced that there's some deep, dark secret about Lupin. I love that boy but he can be an idiot at times. I had to give Sirius the answer to becoming an Animagus so that he can protect anyone coming across "Moony"._

 _The toe-rag only went and kissed me! Okay, okay, I might have kissed him back but still._

 _It did make my toes curl._

 _oOoOo_

 _Sirius is a dog (duh!). A beautiful black Grim to be precise. Potter is a stag which suits. He struts around like a fool. Siri says that Lord Potter is sure that he's fallen completely under the control of Dumbledore. They're thinking of moving against him but that the problems with the Death Eaters and the Purity movement are becoming too much of a priority._

 _The safety of your child compared to that of your very world? Sal and I are in agreement. Family First and Always. After all, it is the reason why I refused the ritual. Siri tells me its a long term plan but I worry things won't turn out the way everyone hopes._

 _oOoOo_

 _I'm a Puma! Or as Siri said, a Cougar that's dating someone younger than herself mentally. My boyfriend is a pig but he sure knows how to kiss!_

 _Granddad Sal is teaching me everything he knows and remembers the others knowing. I'm putting it all in the latter part of this diary as my Grimoire so that my son can learn it all._

 _I don't dare tell Siri but my visions are getting darker. More deaths, more pain and I keep seeing myself die. Sal almost cried when I told him. Apparently Rowena was a true Seer and the only time anyone with the Sight Sees their death is when it is completely unavoidable._

 _We both refuse to accept it._

 _I've warned Cissy. I want her to help protect any child of mine if I can't. If I didn't consider Riddle a murdering psychopath I'd be running off with Siri to join him but I know we can't. Siri refuses to accept that his parents are putting the movement ahead of his family. His little brother Regulus is quickly falling for the party line and Siri is worried that he'll lose his brother._

 _As someone who lost her sister to insane beliefs, I can fully understand that fear._

oOoOo

 _Siri says there's nothing like running during the moon with a werewolf. I use Sal's special room to experiment with my own form but have to be careful. The Marauders (with my whispers in Siri's ears) have created a map that shows everyone in the castle. I used Sal's knowledge of the wards to guide Siri into tying it to the ward stone._

 _Thankfully he made sure they installed a back door to hide themselves but I can't use it too often. The damn stalker keeps watching me on the map. It makes me feel dirty and Siri has to keep himself from punching the arrogant prat in the mouth._

 _oOoOo_

 _Sev always did know how to piss people off. He somehow got Siri to reveal how to get into the Shrieking Shack. I know my Sev, he isn't an idiot, he knew that Remus was a werewolf. I can only guess that his hatred of Potter made him blind to the stupidity of whatever it was that he was planning._

 _Sev now owes Potter a life debt. Moony almost killed Sev and Padfoot...my Siri...had to get between an enraged werewolf and my best friend. Potter pulled him away as Padfoot had to fight Moony._

 _Siri was in the Hospital Wing for two days saving Sev's life. I barely held it together and I'm sure Dumbledore now knows there's something going on between us. Siri told me everything and he realised he should have used Regulus' friendship with Sev to explain the entire situation._

 _I called him an idiot for that idea._

 _I was right. He is an idiot! My Siri only went and ambushed Sev so that he could explain it all. Sev isn't the most logical and clear-headed when it comes to the Marauders. Apparently my two boys had a massive fist fight but are at least now on speaking terms._

 _For as long as I live I will never understand boys._

 _According to Sev, it was when Siri explained about our suspicions with Dumbledore that convinced him Siri was genuine. Apparently everyone got off easy with only some detentions while Sev got threatened for manipulating Siri into potentially getting Lupin killed._

 _It took both boys to hold me back from cursing the bastard when they told me that._

 _oOoOo_

 _1975-1976_

 _Siri and I have developed our own code so we can talk in letters. It's needed since Siri doesn't think he'll cope at his home for much longer. His mum is slipping into some kind of Blood Purity madness that Lord Black suspects is an Obsession Curse and that something similar was put on Cissy's older sister._

 _According to Cissy, Bellatrix was a typical Dark Witch but she's slipping into something worse now. They're currently hunting through the Black Library while I'm looking from Sal's books for anything that might help. The problem is that these mental curses are very specific and so need specific answers._

 _Apparently my two boys are now somewhat friends?_

 _oOoOo_

 _I've fallen in love with Sirius Black!_

 _oOoOo_

 _I've decided to follow my own path. No one is my immediate superior. Blood heritage, social standings, positions of power, these all mean nothing. Blood is blood and magic is magic and I will only answer to myself on both._

 _I shall turn no one away who could be a friend but will rain hell down upon my enemies be that Light, Grey or Dark._

 _Sal agrees with me. It's time to make the name Slytherin mean something rather than narrow-minded bigotry._

 _oOoOo_

 _Siri is with me. Whether we form our own side in this infernal conflict or do something else will be decided._

 _I do this for me, I do this for Siri, and I do it for the son whose life I see in my dreams._

 _oOoOo_

 _Yesterday was the end of the OWLs. Yesterday was both the most painful and beautiful day of my life._

 _Potter attacks Sev again. This time it was in outside in front of too many people for Sev's pride to let him be the better man. I demanded for Potter to stop this insanity and the big had the cheek to agree only if I would go out with him!_

 _Siri told me later that it was only my obvious anger at the request that kept him from hexing the bastard. But that wasn't the worst part. Sev just couldn't stop himself. I tried to see how he was doing and he ended up calling me a Mudblood._

 _Me. His best friend._

 _Siri found me crying my eyes out and took me to the special room. One thing led to another and he made me a woman. It wasn't the way I would have wanted but the night was as magical as I imagined._

 _oOoOo_

 _So it seems like a "good brawl" is all my boys need to clear the air. Siri hunted down Sev after the last Slug Club meeting of the year and laid into him over what he called me. The three of us agreed that I'll eventually forgive Sev but that our friendship had to remain a secret now. Things are getting far too dangerous._

 _oOoOo_

 _1976-1977_

 _Siri had to move in with the Potters. Walburga Black hexed my boyfriend within an inch of his life. It was a close thing but I was tempted to Fiendfyre the cow and everyone living in Grimmauld Place for what they've put my Siri through._

 _No one hurts Sirius. No one._

 _oOoOo_

 _NEWTs are hard but fun. We have more time to ourselves yet Siri and I are struggling to find personal time together. It's even worse in trying to catch Sev without others around._

 _I'm still doing most of my external projects and spending time with Sal. Salazar says that the castle feels something coming and my dreams are saying the same. I'm scared._

 _oOoOo_

 _Dumbledore keeps pushing about Potter. He's also around whenever Siri and I are trying to be alone. He must know. Siri is convinced that we're in trouble and we need to run. I've convinced Sev to come with and the three of us can get out of this madhouse before we're lost to what's consuming the world._

 _Now we just have to survive our last year._

 _oOoOo_

 _1977-1978_

 _My worst fears have come true._

 _Siri doesn't remember anything! I spoke to him quickly on the Hogwarts express and he tried to convince me to get with Potter. He also threatened Sev if I went anywhere near him._

 _I managed to trick him into telling me that Dumbledore went to Potter Manor before they left for the Express. Damn that man to the deepest, darkest depths of hell._

 _He's made me Head Girl and Potter Head Boy. There's no question now that he will do anything to join me and the arrogant git together. Sal is horrified but we both know there's no real proof unless I get Siri to a Mind Healer and I can't do that unless I talk to the Potters..._

 _Wait. I can pretend to fall for Potter's "charms" and get myself invited to the Manor for Christmas. A quick word with Lord Potter and I just might be able to save Siri._

 _oOoOo_

 _I hate this. I absolutely hate this. Sev thinks the entire thing with me and Siri being together and the three of us running away was some type of prank. I know he's got that horrible Dark Mark now and it's all Dumbledore's fault._

 _Pretending to fall for Potter makes me feel sick. I miss Siri. I've sent a letter to Cissy and hopefully there's something her Black mind can come up with._

 _oOoOo_

 _I can't take it any more. I foolishly stormed into Dumbledore's office and told him I knew what he did to Siri. The bastard Obliviated me and put some Compulsions on me to be a dutiful Gryffindor girlfriend for Potter. It was only my Slytherin necklace that kept me from telling him things I didn't want him to know._

 _It took me days to break what he did to me. According to Sal, his bloodline has a strength against Mind Magics. Our minds will forcefully break any changes someone tries making but at the result of a flare of magic._

 _In my case it was a True Dream. I now know what's coming and that my end is near. The only thing that I can do is focus on protecting my son._

 _oOoOo_

 _Christmas is off. Somehow Lord and Lady Potter have come down with a very lethal strain of Dragon Pox. That this has happened only weeks after I went after Dumbledore makes me believe the bastard has killed them._

 _I must continue to play the role of puppet. Sal is horrified at what has happened to me and agreed to do everything he can for my son. I only hope Siri can forgive me._

 _oOoOo_

 _1978-1979_

 _I've passed all my NEWTs and don't care. In only a few weeks I marry Potter. My fate is sealed._

 _oOoOo_

 _I looked beautiful in my dress and my Siri was the most handsome man there. Words cannot express the pain of saying those words to Potter while in my mind they were to the best man._

 _Lady Lily Jasmine Black. That's who I am in my heart._

 _oOoOo_

 _1979-1980_

 _I've planned this to the very last detail. Tonight is Samhain and will mark the first time I lay with a man since I last felt my Siri's arms around me. The potions are ready and I will fall pregnant tonight._

 _The ritual I have prepared will pass some of my magic into my child so that he has a chance at life that I and Siri never did._

 _Harold Godwinson was the man charged by Edward the Confessor to continue the Wessex Dynasty. It was his defeat to William the Conqueror that heralded in the new world order across Britain. My son Harry will bring down the established order of Wizarding Britain and I shall laugh from the other side as he does so._

 _oOoOo_

 _1980-1981_

 _I've made Siri Harry's godfather. Who else would I choose but the man who should have been my son's father? I got in touch with Cissy and named her the unofficial godmother no matter what Potter and Dumbledore prattle off about with the Longbottoms._

 _My boy is beautiful. My boy is innocent and I love him regardless of the hatred I feel for the man who forced me into this situation._

 _Dumbledore speaks of a prophecy pitting my boy against Riddle. Bollocks I say. It's far too convenient especially as I received a letter from Sev telling me it was him who heard part of the prophecy and took it back to his Lord._

 _Except that's not how True Prophecies work. Dumbledore has set us up. I was able to sneak back to speak with Sal and he said that there was one given during an interview but there was no one else around to hear except Dumbledore. And Sal would know, it was done within Cassie._

 _Did he not like what he heard? How did it then get to be repeated in the Hog's Head for Sev to overhear?_

 _The depths of my hatred towards the twinkling-eyed bastard know no bounds. I would make Bellatrix Lestrange look like a puppy if I were to lose myself in revenge on what he has done to me and mine._

 _My only peace of mind comes in knowing that my son will get revenge for us both._

 _oOoOo_

 _Samhain. Last year I used it to gain a beautiful boy who I love with all my heart. This Samhain is the end of me and this nightmare that I am living. All my dreams tell me that this is when I will die._

 _I completed the second part of the legacy ritual this morning. With Potter out speaking to the great and powerful Oz, I've managed to claim the Slytherin Lordship as proxy and proclaimed Harry my heir. When Voldemort comes tonight he will kill me, forcing the last of my magic to protect Harry. As a member of our House, Riddle's magic will rebel against the slaying of his Lord Apparent. My runic protections will buffer the attack and protect my boy against anything that might happen next._

 _This book and my necklace will return to granddad Sal. I can only believe that Dumbledore has a plan to keep Siri out of Harry's life so it will be down to Sal to prepare Harry for the truth._

 _I love you, Harry. I go now to defend your life. You were the only light in the darkness of these past few years._

 _Kill every last one of the bastards who did this to us._

.

.

oOoOo

.

.

 _5_ _th_ _June, 1993 – Hogwarts_

It took Harry three days to read his mother's diary. Three days of sneaking a read here and there during the day while staying up for hours at night to go through every word. Some of the entries were simple notes, one or two lines of thoughts that would remind her of whatever had caught her attention. These tended to be how she would write about the Christmas and summer holidays spent with her family. It didn't surprise Harry to find out his aunt was as spiteful and disgusting as a child as he had found her as an adult.

There were other entries that were so detailed it made his head spin. Notes and diagrams of her extra class work and independent research, breaking down the subjects until Harry felt like even he could follow what she was saying as long as he didn't look back at the initial premise of her ideas.

In the same amount of time he explored the network of passageways that Salazar had introduced him to. The system was a marvel of magic and engineering that was straight out of a story for the wide-eyed boy. The opening for Gryffindor Tower was just a little way off to the side so that it wasn't obvious from where he had come and gone. Harry used that door to then request access to the other three Common Rooms. The Slytherin tunnel brought him out in a shadowed alcove between the actual entrance and Snape's Potion classroom, somehow the Ravenclaw passage brought him halfway up the Raven's Tower and the Hufflepuff route opened up two portraits down from the entrance to the kitchen. Harry suspected he would be using it for that more than hunting any Puffs.

Harry used the exploring of the Hogwarts network to give him a chance to think over everything that he had read and had happened in his life. Lily Evans had been best friends with the spiteful and cruel Potions Master Severus Snape to the point where she almost never called the man anything but 'Sev.' She had also detailed exactly the type of man James Potter had been and the sheer sadistic glee the stuck up Gryffindor had in targeting a lone Slytherin. All because Snape was friends with the girl who wouldn't give him a glance.

Harry had suffered twelve long years at the hands of the Dursleys and in that time had lost many potential friendships to the bully that was Dudley. It didn't take too much imagination for Harry to imagine just how bad Dudley could be if he enjoyed the power that the 'Freakishness' could give him. He spent only long enough on thinking about Dudley appearing to have the perfect marriage with his one true friend to know it wasn't a good mental road to go down.

 _There is no Good and Evil, only Power and those too weak to seek it._ Quirrell's words echoed inside Harry's mind the deeper he read. All those times he had been given the impression that his mother was a Light Witch and it was all but lies. She might not have been Dark the way Voldemort and his followers were but she understood that there were more than two types of philosophy when it came to magic. In her own words; she was a Grey Witch. The darkest shade of Grey imaginable but still Grey.

And therein lay the core of Harry's emotional state. As much as he had enjoyed the past two years in Hogwarts he also felt constricted. Areas of magic, more now after reading Lily's journal and Grimoire, attracted him that he knew the mindless people would be horrified at learning of. Harry had been pushing down this not so Light side only to find out it was a true legacy from his mother. Harry realised that most of the people who had told him about his parents had glossed over Lily's achievements and ignored her prodigious talents. Harry knew that his mother would have walked all over Hermione when it came to sheer talent and knowledge as his bushy-haired friend didn't have the ability to think outside the box the way Lily Evans did.

Yet it was always _Hermione this_ and _Hermione that._ Just the same way it was always _James this_ and _James that_ when people spoke of the Potters. Harry snarled at that thought. While James Potter might have been an arrogant Pure-blood pig whose simple way of looking at the world made Ronald Weasley seem enlightened, it was the man's Master that brought out Harry's rage.

Albus Dumbledore. Just the thought of the Headmaster had Harry seeing red and the urge to kill tingling in his fingertips. The lemon drop sucking bastard had destroyed Lily's relationship with her true love Sirius Black. That her Slytherin blood broke the old man's mental manipulations was a blessing and curse as she was forced to look at the man she loved and have him see a virtual stranger looking back.

For all James Potter's crimes, he was at least innocent in this. One of Lily's last entries had explained how she'd put him under an _Imperio_ to find out if he knew about her and Sirius being together. The man had almost fallen apart at the idea of essentially raping the woman he loved because she had been compelled to be with him. She'd Obliviated him the moment the spell broke.

No, the source of the horror that made up Lily Evans' last years of life could be laid at the feet of one man. The man that Harry would do everything in his power to bring low, broken and pleading for the mercy that would never come.

His darkening thoughts brought him to stand in front of his great-grandfather. Salazar Slytherin looked down at his descendant with knowing eyes, clearly seeing what now burned within the Boy-Who-Lived.

"She gave her life and magic so that I could be here," he managed to say between clenched teeth. "I want you to teach me everything."

"Lord Slytherin, it will be a pleasure," Salazar crowed and two sets of Avada eyes glowed with thoughts of revenge to those who had wronged their family.

.

.

oOoOo


	5. Turning Gold into Silver

**AN: I can't actually remember what inspired this story even though you might see a familiar event or two. Namely, Gryffindor kicks Harry out after his name comes out of the Goblet. And rather than allow himself to be isolated, this is Harry's reaction.**

* * *

 _1st November 1994 – Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

Harry Potter stared down the corridor and took a deep breath to steady his nerves. He knew this was his last chance to turn back, to keep everything the way it had always been. It was _that_ thought which got him taking his first step, the drive to change the status quo burning stronger than any nerves over what he was about to do. He only stopped his walk when he arrived at the door he needed and knocked.

"Enter."

Harry pushed open the door and walked into the dragon's lair with his head held high. The dragon in question sneered as soon as it spotted who was disturbing it.

"And just what are you doing here, Potter?" Professor Snape demanded in a voice that dripped venom. Harry idly wondered if the man ever thought to use it in his potions. He said nothing until he was standing at parade rest in front of the man who had made his life a misery for the past three years.

"Do you know what my introduction to the magical world was, Professor?" Harry asked in a monotone voice, eyes front and looking over Snape's shoulder. That didn't mean he missed the snarl and darkening of the man's eyes.

"What are you blathering..."

"The Cupboard under the Stairs," Harry interrupted, speaking the unspeakable truth. "That's the address my Hogwarts letter had. It was all I got to read before Dudley stole it, Vernon read it, and Petunia freaked out. It was Hagrid who found the me with the Dursleys on the rocks that could laughably be called an island. That was the first time I found out my parents didn't die in a drunken car crash."

Snape's usual attitude towards the boy had come to a mental crash at the name of Petunia. He knew Petunia. He _loathed_ Petunia. Petunia had made Lily cry and to Snape, that was the ultimate sin. Now he could only listen as his rage against James Potter clashed with what he was hearing.

"He took me to Diagon Alley. That was the first time I knew I had a Trust Vault although I've still never been given the key. Dumbledore gave it to Hagrid and then Mrs Weasley."

Severus Snape expected many things from the Potter boy with none of them good. What he never expected was the words coming out of the boy's mouth in such a cold and clinical fashion while he looked into the distance with a thousand yard stare. It was a look devoid of any life and chilled Snape to see it in that particular colour.

"Hagrid told me that there was never a wizard or witch who went to Slytherin that didn't go bad. I didn't even understand what Slytherin _was_ back then," Harry scoffed, the only hint of emotion he had shown since he began speaking. "I meet a blond ponce when I was getting my robes. He reminded me of my cousin and that put me right off."

Harry stopped and frowned, tilting his head to the side as though something had caught his attention. "Those robes were the first items of clothing that I've ever had for myself. Everything else are hand-me-downs from my fat beach ball cousin."

Snape was desperate to stop Potter speaking. Desperate to keep the image of a pampered and spoilt son to a pampered and spoilt father in his mind. Yet the simple words kept his mouth shut and forced his eyes open. For the first time since Harry Potter stepped into Hogwarts, Severus Snape took a good look at the boy and realised just what type of home-life he had.

"I was sent back to the Dursleys and all my stuff was locked in the cupboard under the stairs," Harry continued, this time actually looking at Snape's dark, stormy eyes. "I've been given Dudley's spare bedroom now. I'm still rationed on how many showers in a week I'm allowed though."

The sound of bones cracking filled the office as Snape's fingers clenched at the causal words.

"I never had a friend before. Dudley beat up anyone who tried," Harry mused as his gaze drifted back over Snape's shoulder. "Hagrid never told me how to get onto Platform 9 3/4s. He also never gave me any of the Muggle-born information that the rest got. So there I was, lost and confused when a gaggle of red heads come storming through Kings Cross and the woman is shouting about Muggles and a platform that shouldn't exist."

Snape's eyebrow raised at this. Magicals _never_ went through the Muggle entrance to the platform unless they had a very good reason for it. A smirk slides across Potter's lips almost too fast for Snape to catch but he did.

"Yeah, strange how a Light family suddenly turns up confused about how to get on the Express when I'm sitting there not knowing what to do."

Snape was past trying to react, he was barely able to _think._

"So here's this boy who appears to be trying to be my friend. I didn't even know what to do with a friend but I knew I actually wanted one," Harry explained with his brow creased in confusion. "Having a slap on the back as a sign of friendship is still strange to me. But then the blond ponce storms in, demands I take his offered hand and insult the boy who appears to be becoming my friend."

Snape wasn't just a Potions Master and his sharp mind was coming to understand what was coming next and he dreaded it. He was desperately wishing that this moment was a potion hallucination and it would soon be over.

"I'm Muggle-raised, what in the bloody hell did I know about society etiquette like always shaking a hand that's offered?" And Snape flinched at the question, remembering how he had to quickly learn the nuances of magical interactions once he joined Slytherin. He could just imagine what the reaction would be if Lucius had offered his hand and he accidentally refused. "When we were waiting to be sorted, the blond ponce made another push to force himself into my life and badmouth the boy who had been friendly with. So after all this and Ron and Hagrid telling me that only evil people entered Slytherin, what was I to do?"

The question was as rhetorical as it was painful for Snape to hear.

"I know what I _did_ ," and suddenly the mask of the Golden Gryffindor slipped away to reveal someone who could easily have been one of Severus' Pure-blood snakes. The change in personality was yet another surprise that kept the Potions Master from speaking. "I made the biggest mistake I could and refused the Hat's chance at becoming great just to stay away from one annoying blond boy. Well, that's what I'm here for, Professor. Gryffindor has seen it to banish me from their tower after last night's fiasco with the Goblet and this allows me to rectify that decision. I want to come home. I want to become a Slytherin."


	6. The Duelling Master's Apprentice

**AN: This came about from the first year of Son of Potter where Filius takes Harry under his wing. The idea? What would happen if that occurred at the very beginning of Harry's Hogwarts life with a far more goblin Flitwick?**

* * *

Filius Flitwick was many things to many people. He was a beloved son to a goblin healer and witch Curse Breaker when the two had fallen in love on an extended tour of Asia. He was a good colleague to the other Professors within Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and always available with a friendly word or glass of Ogden's Finest. He was a bubbly teacher who didn't hand out too many punishments to his students, preferring to aid their growth rather than discourage it. He had also been the secret mentor to one Lily Evans in order for the Muggle-born to gain her Charms Mastery beneath the ever-sneering gaze of the Pure-bloods.

And regardless of what the Sorting Hat had once said, Filius Flitwick was also as much as Slytherin as the Gryffindor the Hat wanted him to become and the Ravenclaw it named him. He knew his employer had his eyes on things beyond the castle just as Filius had kept his own eyes on the key to those plans since that fateful Samhain night.

There were many other facets to the small Head of Ravenclaw House and one of them was being able to work out things that others wanted hidden. So when Albus Dumbledore came to him in order to create a protection for the fabled Philosopher's Stone, the diminutive Professor went above and beyond what the Headmaster actually asked for.

As a Charms Master, he was able to put a spell on each of his flying keys so that anyone not of pure intentions would grow weaker until they collapsed through magical exhaustion. Oh, it was nothing fatal, but it was certainly enough to make people think twice about moving through one of his little traps. He didn't bother telling Dumbledore this nor did he mentioned the monitoring charms he placed on every other "protection" the foolish man had made some of the other teachers create.

After all, what the man didn't know couldn't hurt him.

And when the new intake of first years entered the Great Hall, it was with goblin sharp eyes that he watched a smaller than average boy with scruffy black hair and clothes far too big for his body. He watched behind a perfect mask of goblin Occlumency how the boy was hyper-aware of his surroundings, especially whenever someone would move anywhere near his personal space. It was an attitude the half-goblin had seen before in his attempts to look over the son of his favourite student and he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, the type of childhood the Headmaster had damned the boy to.

While Lily Evans might have been a genius at Potions to rival her one-time friend Severus Snape, it was in Charms that the girl had excelled at. Little Lily had been entered Hogwarts in Filius' first year of teaching and the two had spent the next seven years cultivating a friendship that went beyond Teacher-Pupil. He taught her far more than what was in the curriculum and even aided her curiosity in Ancient Runes. The girl could have been anything she wanted if she had lived long enough. And Filius Flitwick had blood-sworn upon his blade that her son would have the chance to do exactly that.

"Potter, Harry!" Came the strong Scottish voice of Filius' friend and it brought the Charms Master back to the present. He saw Lily's boy give a brief cringe at the whispers following him to the stool and barely kept from growling.

Soon his plans would fall into place and the dark life of Harry Potter would be changed for the better.

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oOoOo

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 _12th September 1991_

Filius would continue to watch young Harry as the weeks turned and listen carefully during the teacher meetings to find out what the other Professors thought of Lily's boy. He almost pulled out his coming of age goblin blade when Severus went into a venomous rant about the arrogance of Potters after the first Gryffindor/Slytherin Potions class of the year. He knew from listening in on a conversation one of his young Claws had with her twin Lion sister that the events had gone completely different to what the Slytherin Head of House portrayed.

 _Things are not as they seem,_ he thought when Dumbledore merely excused the Potion Master's rant rather than questioning it as the old man would have done to anyone else. He knew of Dumbledore's machinations but had not realised the plot included the murderer Snape.

Filius watched from his seat as the little Malfoy peacocked his way over to the Gryffindor table to cause problems with young Harry and Neville Longbottom. He didn't like the situation at all and made sure to watch the flying lesson that would bring the apparent enemies back together.

He watched in disgust at the brashness of a supposed Slytherin and the cowardly way he threw a small object away from the flying Harry. Filius had no love of being on a broomstick but it didn't mean he couldn't appreciate the natural instincts of Harry Potter as he flew full speed in order to catch his goal.

The death-defying dive and catch amazed Filius. He ignored the striding form of his close friend as she stormed across the lawn to commender the boy. He knew that Minerva would have seen a Seeker prodigy being found but to Filius he had seen something else. He had watched a boy go on pure instincts to control not only his body but also a tool in order to move as one. To be capable of judging the dive and pull up meant a spacial awareness that was unheard of in most human children and it was obviously coupled with a determination that ignored any potential injury.

"You've got a special boy there, Lily," he whispered to the air and felt a slight breeze answer.

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oOoOo

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That evening saw the Malfoy boy once more make the way over to young Harry and this time Filius made sure to surreptitiously cast a listening charm in order to properly observe the interaction. He almost growled when Ron Weasley took over and forced Lily's son in a midnight wizard's duel.

There were words for what the boy had done to Harry and names for those who did it. Filius knew he would need to speak to the focus of his observations soon before the other boy got his hooks too deep into him.

He was secretly waiting outside the Gryffindor common room under heavy security charms when Harry, Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger excited the Fat Lady's portrait. The Muggle-born girl was in the middle or berating the two boys as though she was a teacher. Filius sniffed at her attitude and subtly 'convinced' the Fat Lady to depart her frame before the girl turned around.

 _Perhaps a little adventure will make her see things differently,_ he mentally chuckled, always having loved some of the less severe pranks done by the legendary Marauders and the Weasley Twins.

Filius was easily able to keep up with the children as they made their way through the castle. His initial plan was to put a stop to the duel as soon as everyone was in place and show up the Malfoy boy for his lack of true Pure-blood etiquette in making the challenge. This thought was halted when the trio found a sleeping Neville Longbottom who had been locked out.

Filius didn't believe in breaking students privacy but something was very amiss. He knew Madam Pomfrey would not let one of her patients leave the Hospital Wing as late as this. A quick whisper of _Legilimency_ while he was talking to the other three and the Charms Master had his answer.

 _Dumbledore_. He mentally growled. _Just what are you playing at?_ The Headmaster had woken the sleeping boy and told him to get back to his common room knowing that couldn't remember the password. Filius' eyes narrowed as the suspicion the man knew of the duel began to solidify.

It was a duel that never happened. The trap had almost been sprung and Filius' spells on the third-floor room told the irate Head of Ravenclaw exactly where the panicking children had run off to when Filch had been in the Trophy Room instead of Malfoy.

He was so close to making the decision but couldn't help holding back. He knew if young Harry agreed then it would change the boy's life.

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oOoOo

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The next time Filius was able to watch his secret charge was during the boy's Quidditch introduction. There was no way a Muggle-raised child would know anything about the sport and the fact was cemented by how Oliver Wood appeared to be explaining things. Filius watched from the window as Harry would go on to catch over fifty golf balls in half an hour. In dying light.

 _Imagine that skill and perception in spell swatting._ He shook his head in wonder, feeling a sense of excitement at getting such a raw talent under his wing. Filius had received many offers to take a protégé and had never felt the urge. Until now.

But then this was Lily's son. His Apprentice's child. As goblins would say; blood had run true.

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oOoOo

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 _Halloween, 1991_

Goblins were not known for holding back when they knew action was needed. Filius had decided that the anniversary of dear Lily's death would be a good time to offer his assistance to her boy. It would allow young Harry a sense of rebirthing that such dates opened up within the goblin world.

His anticipation was one such reason why he was running down the corridor with Minerva, Severus and the idiot Quirrell to battle a troll rather than look after his Claws. The bloodlust that was a part of his very being was rising only for it to collapse as the three Professors came across a most unusual sight.

The girl's bathroom was destroyed while an unconscious troll was laid out face down on the floor. The three first-year Gryffindors looked to be struggling to believe they had survived the attack and Filius couldn't blame them. Neither could he!

"What on Earth were you thinking of?" Minerva's fury was understandable, as was the fear fuelling it. "You're lucky you weren't killed. Why aren't you in your dormitory?"

"Please, Professor McGonagall, they were looking for me. I went looking for the troll because I...I thought I could deal with it on my own. You know, because I've read all about them," the obvious lie caused one of Filius' white eyebrows to rise. It was, after all, _his_ classroom that the Weasley boy had embarrassed her into running away. By the looks of her red eyes, she had not stopped crying since. "If they hadn't found me, I'd be dead now. Harry stuck his wand up its nose and on knocked it out with its own club."

Filius wasn't sure whether to laugh at the fact that Miss Granger's lie would actually be believable considering her attitude in classes or the looks of shock on the two boys' faces. He somehow managed to hold it in until his friend had disciplined the girl and rewarded the boys.

"Actually, Minerva," he interrupted when she was about to send the boys to Gryffindor Tower. "I need to speak to Mister Potter about his Charms work. I'll make sure he eats and gets back to the Tower in time."

The tall Scotswoman looked concerned for her cub but nodded.

"Very well."

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oOoOo

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Harry had no idea what the funny Charms Professor would want with him and shared a worried look with Ron just before the redhead ran off.

It was a silent walk as he followed Professor Flitwick and Harry was surprised when the man took him up to the seventh floor rather than to the Charms corridor. The Professor stopped briefly to look down the left corridor before taking Harry to his office. Harry also paused to follow his teacher's gaze and only saw a blank wall and his confusion rose.

"Sit, Mister Potter, sit. We have much to discuss," Flitwick announced as he took his chair. The thing grew in height as soon as Harry sat down so that the two were eye level. "I suspect you're wondering why I requested you."

"Yes...yes, sir," he stammered, nodding quickly. "I didn't think my homework was that bad, sir."

"Oh, it's not, Mister Potter," the surprisingly serious man announced. Harry's jaw dropped and he wondered if he had fallen into that Twilight Show Dudley secretly sneaked downstairs to watch. Harry's body instinctively stiffened when the Professor withdrew his wand and sent it dancing through the air. He had no idea what Flitwick was doing, but Harry felt the magic was over the room when he was done. The diminutive teacher waited until the wand had been put away before continuing. "However, there _is_ an interesting discrepancy about your work that isn't there with others. Do you know what it is?"

"No sir," Harry frowned. He'd been trying his hardest to make sure the quality was always the same so not to overshadow Ron. Flitwick, as though reading his thoughts, smirked and it was a look that somehow suited the man.

"Your theory work could be considered average, Mister Potter. Nothing on the level of Miss Granger but certainly not the bottom of the class," Harry couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped. That feeling didn't last as the Professor continued. "Except for one small thing. Every so often you'll throw out a very interesting concept that hints at a potential far above what you've been showing. Now, can you think of _why_ your work could have such varied quality?"

Harry's eyes widened at that. He didn't realise that his work between when he was sitting with Ron and when was alone differed so wildly.

"Because, Mister Potter," and here there was nothing but seriousness in the Charms Master's voice. "It very much appears that you're deliberately holding yourself back."

"No! Sir, it's not...I would never...I..." The excuses died on Harry's lips even as the panic rose. There was a look in Professor Flitwick's dark eyes that cut off any attempt he could think to persuade the man he was wrong. He turned away from the penetrating gaze to stare at the wall.

"There are very few reasons why a smart person would hide their intelligence," Flitwick softly continued knowing that he was on uneven ground with the skittish boy. "Some don't want the negative attention that Miss Granger suffers from. The other main reason is that they have been taught that being smart isn't a good thing."

There was no hiding the wince nor Harry's frantic glances towards the door as though ready to escape.

"It pains me to see the son of Lily being forced to hide his skills," now Harry's head snapped back to focus on Flitwick just as the half-goblin knew it would. There was a hungry gleam in the familiar green eyes that he planned on exploiting. He was, after all, a goblin. "Especially when I was the one who helped her push herself throughout her time here."

"You...you knew my mum?" The question was barely whispered but the words contain plenty for Flitwick to put more pieces in his developing picture of the boy's life so far.

"I did indeed. We started Hogwarts at the same time; she as a first year like you while it was my first year as a teacher. There were many-a-times when I would have to give her a pass for curfew because she was working under my tutelage."

"You...she..."

"She was my protégé, Mister Potter. My Apprentice in Charms and it was a proud day for me when she became a Mistress in the arts."

"I didn't know," there were tears in those Avada eyes and his voice quivered but Filius deliberately ignored both. "I don't know anything about my parents."

"Unfortunately you'll be able to hear all about your father," Flitwick's sigh caused Harry to frown and he worried what type of man James Potter was to get such a reaction. "Minerva took him under her wing for his NEWTs and wouldn't see a word spoken against him. Professor Snape, on the other hand, believes your father is the devil incarnate."

"Is that why he hates me?" Harry snarled and there was a quick smell of ozone as his power bristled with his anger. The loss of control was quickly curtailed and Harry once again looked like a meek first year. Flitwick smirked inside and knew the boy was close.

"There are many reasons for Professor Snape's attitude towards you, Mister Potter. And I hope to explain them all to you eventually. However, we must address the reason you're here. Topper!"

Suddenly a small creature popped into existence and its arrival completely derailed Harry's thoughts on what he was hearing. The wide-eyed, long-eared being looked almost adoringly at the Professor.

"Topper, could you bring me and Mister Potter some food? We're going to be here a while."

"Oh yes, Master Little Flick, Topper bes doing so."

"That is what is called a house-elf, Mister Potter," Flitwick explained when the elf vanished the same way it arrived. "They are creatures magically bonded to wizards."

"Slaves?" Harry whispered, far too aware of how such a situation feels.

"Somewhat," came the admission. "They are Lesser Fae and originally enjoyed helping out anyone they considered worthy. At some point, and no one knows whether it was by choice or curse, some of the elves bonded to wizards. They are no longer able to live without that magical connection."

"We bes helpers, little Master," the elf explained when it popped back in with two plates of food. He had brought a collection so that they would have their pick. "Elves like helping, we likes working for wizards."

"Thank you, Topper," Flitwick smiled at the elf who bowed back and vanished in another pop. The Professor picked up a meat-filled sandwich and continued the impromptu lesson. "Your mother was quick insistent on trying to free them when she initially heard about house-elves. It's a normal reaction to those raised in the Muggle world. But she quickly came to understand that it wasn't so much the bond but the way some wizards treat the elves that were important."

Oh yes, Harry understood _that_ very well.

The two were silent for a few minutes as they ate. Harry was still confused as to the real reason for the Professor's interest in him yet couldn't shake one single important fact. The Professor apparently knew his mum and was possibly a close friend of hers!

"So, Mister Potter," Flitwick broke the silence once he was sure the boy had eaten enough to get him through the day. The half-goblin picked up his tea and took a sip, eyeing the young man over the top of the cup. "When did Miss Granger calm down from Mister Weasley's temper tantrum in my class?"

"She didn't," he mumbled, head down. Harry took a moment to collect his thoughts and then sighed, defeated. The food had taken the edge off the harrowing experience of fighting the troll and calmed his shaking nerves. "I realised she hadn't come back and Ron came with me to find her."

"And was Mister Weasley happy to make up for his grievous error towards the young lady?"

"Well...no, sir," Harry frowned as he thought back over the short conversation.

" _I've just thought – Hermione."_

" _what about her?"_

" _She doesn't know about the troll!" Harry watched Ron bite his lip and blinked at how that important piece of information didn't seem to be of interest to the other boy._

" _Oh, all right. But Percy better not see us."_

"He...he didn't care, Professor," Harry's eyes were wide and all the good food suddenly felt like lead in his stomach. "He only came because I made him."

The Professor hummed as though not surprised and asked a question that had Harry's head spinning from the subject change.

"So how was it that you ended up looking to duel Mister Malfoy after only a few weeks of magical schooling?"

"What? Sir? How?" Harry was flabbergasted that the man knew and wondered what else went on in the school that the students thought were secret but weren't. He merely got a cheeky smirk and silence until he sighed, running his hands through his hair. "Malfoy came over mouthing off as usual after I was put on the Quidditch team. I pointed out that he was a lot braver on the ground with Crabbe and Goyle than when it was just us in the air."

"Hmm, yes bullies do seem to prefer company when they're dealing out the pain."

"I know, sir," Harry dropped his head so the Professor couldn't see the echo of memories as he remembered all the times his cousin Dudley would show up with his gang. When he continued it was in a subdued voice. "I guess Malfoy didn't like hearing the truth. He started spouting off about a Wizard's Duel and something about no contact. I didn't understand what he meant."

"And yet you agreed to duel an opponent without understanding the situation?"

"No, sir! That was...It was..."

"It was?" And now Harry was _sure_ the Professor knew this beforehand. There was a glint of mischief in his deep, dark eyes.

"It was Ron, sir. Ron just accepted and put himself as my second without me saying anything."

Flitwick nodded as that thought percolated in Harry's mind. Ron Weasley had got Harry involved in something Harry had no clue about, something that apparently could get someone killed, and apparently hadn't seen a problem with it. Ron Weasley had then not even considered Hermione worthy of being helped until Harry had almost made him help look for the upset girl. A girl Ron Weasley was the one to upset after she helped him during class.

 _Just why the bloody hell am I friends with Ron Weasley?_ He demanded of himself. _Dean's a good bloke, talented too. Neville's quiet but I'm used to that myself. And what about the other Houses? Why don't I talk to anyone in a different House? Dudley can't chase them away here. I can have more than one friend here...no, I can have good friends here._

"And now I think I should get to the reason for this little chat," the Professor announced as he bounced a little on his chair. Harry nodded, not realising that part of Flitwick's goals had already been accomplished. "As well as explain the wards I put up earlier."

Flitwick's announcement brought Harry out of his twisting thoughts and he looked at the smaller man. Harry had no idea that many of his masks had fallen away and there was a hard, calculating edge to the Avada eyes.

"First, the wards. They are what are known as Privacy Wards and were co-created by your mother and I. Not only can no one eavesdrop on anything we have or will say in this room, but the two of us must _completely_ trust someone before being capable of sharing with others. It is impossible to simply slip up and mention something in passing."

Harry froze so still that only his frantic heart beating letting him known he was still alive. His mum had actually created spells with the man sitting across from him. He pulled himself together when Flitwick coughed and nodded to say he was ready for the rest.

"I wish to take you under my tutelage, Mister Potter. You work to your fullest in all classes and I'll teach you not only what I taught your mother but also how to duel. And for the record, I have _never_ taken, nor offered to take, a duelling Apprentice before this evening."

"Why me?" Now Harry's voice had softened to almost a whisper, a desperate sound of longing that was also filled with the need to understand. "Why me, sir?"

"A lot has to do with Lily," Flitwick admitted without shame and Harry could see the fondness the man had for his mother. "But there is also the fact I see such _potential_ in you, Mister Potter. Potential that, for one reason or another, is not being encouraged nor are you reaching for it."

The conversation had taken such a familiar feel that Harry was thrown back into another memory where he repeated the words that had once sent shivers down his spine.

"'Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind, either. There's talent, oh my goodness yes. And a nice thirst to prove yourself," and while the words were spoken in a monotone voice Flitwick still knew their origin. The teacher's breath hitched even as his heart raced with excitement. "You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on your way to greatness."

Harry's head tilted to the side and his gaze held such a focus that no one had ever seen in the young boy before.

"I turned the hat down, Professor, but you've made me realise I've also been turning down everything it saw in me. I'd like to change that, sir."

"Excellent!" Flitwick clapped wildly, grinning as he bounced on his chair with excitement. And if the Professor looked a little like a Muggle evil villain whose plan had come together then it was surely a coincidence.

Wasn't it?

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oOoOo

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 _Gryffindor Tower – Later that Night._

It was a dazed Harry who mumbled the password and practically fell through the portrait hole. The fact was that he and Professor Flitwick had spent almost two hours going over just the basic information that the Charms Master wanted Harry to know. It was still making his head spin.

"Blimey, mate," the unmistakable voice of Ronald Weasley broke into his thoughts and Harry blinked before looking around the mostly empty common room to find its source. "What took you so long?"

The redhead was sitting alone practising chess with himself while Hermione read on one of the soft chairs. The moment she realised Harry was back she was off the chair and enveloping him in a powerful hug. Instincts had Harry fighting the cringe of physical contact.

"Professor Flitwick needed to talk to me about stuff," he gave a non-committal answer and looked at the slightly puffy-eyed girl. While he hadn't returned the hug he also hadn't pushed her away. There was something in her eyes when she drew back that unsettled him. "Has he apologised yet?"

Hermione's eyes widened at the question as though she hadn't even expected an apology. That Harry had felt the same after the ginger had thrown him to the wolves with Malfoy only made Harry's annoyance grow.

"What you on about, mate? We saved her!"

"Ron, you didn't even want to go look for Hermione. I made you," he sighed and, despite his unease at close physical contact, slipped an arm around the waist of the girl in question. He didn't want to think she was destroying a friendship. "Just like how I didn't have a clue about what a Wizard's Duel was and _you_ accepted one on my behalf."

"Of course I did!" The boy rose from his game and the volume of his voice lifted with him. The few that were still up watched intently while Hermione seemed to shrink under Ron's aggressive nature. "You're Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived! You're not going to back down to a slimy snake!"

Harry blinked in surprise and his heart clenched painfully. Somehow Hermione picked up on his emotional shift and squeezed his waist for her support. Some of the remaining Gryffindors cringed at Ron's words while others looked like they agreed with him.

"No, that's not who I am, Ron," Harry's argued with an empty voice. His eyes closed from the emotions pushing at his iron control and he squeezed Hermione back in gratitude before letting her go. "I'm merely an orphan who survived the death of his parents."

While the words held steel to them, there was enough pain to make all but the densest of idiots cringe. Harry moved over to the fire and dropped onto the nearest seat so he could stare into the flames. Hermione followed at a more sedate pace and realised that Harry's next words were merely thoughts spoken aloud rather than anything else.

"You all call me the Boy-Who-Lived. Don't you understand that all I hear when you say that is Parents-Who-Died?" The sort plea spread across the common room that had somehow filled up once raised voices were heard. Someone had spread the word that Harry Potter was speaking. "You celebrate who I am. You celebrate today as an end of a war. Don't you understand your cheering the fact my parents were killed?"

He didn't realise that for the first time since he was little tears were flowing. Ron looked uncomfortable and angry at the emotional plea, as though the very fabric of his identity was being threatened. Yet the older students shared Harry's tears. Some even have vague memories of their parents celebrating the end of the war all because of a one-year-oold baby

Harry didn't recognise any of this. He simply stared into the flames while Hermione sat nearby to show her support. No more words were said. No more words were needed.

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oOoOo


	7. Magical Effect

**AN:** **This is literally a quick drabble that was written late last week/the weekend just past. I have no idea when this would become an actual story as it needs a fair bit of work to even be turned into a proper first chapter. Still, here's a teaser of what would be a two-part story. The first would be Harry (as Commander Shepard from Mass Effect) coming back to his proper timeline and the second would be Harry going through all three ME games.**

* * *

 _1995 - Department of Mysteries_

The spells were flying everywhere. Magic saturated the strange room as Death Eaters fought against the Order of the Phoenix. It was into this chaos that Dumbledore arrived, walking into the room as though merely late for a meeting. That is until you saw the hard glint in his blue eyes. Some of the Death Eaters tried to run only to be pulled back by a swish of the Grand Sorcerer's wand. Others tried fighting only to find out just why the old man was able to duel their Master to a standstill.

Harry Potter quickly but gently put his injured friend Neville Longbottom onto the hard ground. There was one fight that continued as though the rest of the world had fallen away. One fight where the two combatants had far too much history to let the other go. It was into this fight that Harry ran, wand ready to help his godfather defeat Bellatrix Lestrange.

No plan survives first contact with the enemy.

Sirius ducked out of the way of a red spell only to put himself in the way of another coming towards him. Harry acted on instinct to do the one thing he always did; put others before himself.

As though changing course to avoid a bludger, Harry used his momentum to barrel into Sirius, sending the older man stumbling away. Time appeared to slow for all those in the room as Sirius' shoulder hit the stone arc that had the strange fluttering veil attached. He grunted as he hit the floor on the safe side of the Veil only to turn his head and see that Harry had not been so lucky.

The curse smashed into Harry's stomach and the impact combined with his lack of balance after saving Sirius sent Harry through the Veil.

The fighting stopped.

The adults who knew exactly what the Veil was looked on with either horror, shock or glee at the apparent demise of the Boy-Who-Lived. Those sensitive to magic felt as though the world itself blinked, reality unable to believe what had just happened. And then the Veil began to twist and turn, seemingly caught in a violent wind that no one in the room could feel. Just as the realisation of Harry vanishing was about to sink in, the arch flashed Avada green and a large grey shape shot out of the Veil.

It hit the ground hard and rolled, the groaning letting everyone know it was a person. Said person was dressed in a strange armour that seemed to cover them from neck to feet. It reminded everyone of the type of armour knights were known to wear in the distant past only with a far more streamlined design. As the person pushed themselves into a kneeing position, the stencilled design of a blood-red dragon was seen coming down the left shoulder.

The man's long black hair hung loose and was matted with what appeared to be blood. The same was also seen on his right side from where the armour had been ripped open. Bright green eyes looked around the large room in confusion and then slow understanding.

"Huh," a somewhat familiar voice coughed as the man, younger than what had been immediately suspected, pushed himself to his feet. "I did _not_ expect to see this place again."

A spell came flying towards the man only for him to twist out of the way even with his wound. A quick wave of the hand and a flash of green light saw most of the standing Death Eaters flying against a wall. It was only their groans that let the stunned watchers know they were still alive.

Avada eyes narrowed at the caster of the spell as Bellatrix turned and ran. The man's left hand twitched and suddenly a strange device was in his grip. Remus Lupin's eyes widened as he recognised the weapon even if the design was completely foreign to him.

The armoured man simply lifted the gun up and fired once, Bellatrix's screams of agony as her shoulder was completely shredded proved he had hit his target. The mad witch stumbled back to her feet and the armoured man followed, completely ignoring his own wounds to hunt down his prey.

In the ensuing silence, it was Sirius Black who voiced the most important question.

"Was that _Harry_?"

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oOoOo

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	8. The Magic of Sunnydale

**AN: I love a bit of HP and Buffy-verse mixing so here is something I knocked up a few weeks ago to set the stage. All timelines are canon compliant for both series.**

* * *

 _~Post 2000 – Somewhere in England_

The medium height, raven-haired and bright green-eyed man slipped through the hotel as though a ghost. He moved as a warrior, as someone who had spent his entire life fighting against some evil or another. Those who moved out of his way or simply watched him past knew only two things. The man was dangerous and he was on a mission.

He was dressed in tight black trousers, a dark green shirt that complimented his eyes and a long duster jacket that shifted as he walked, almost as though it were alive. On his right middle finger sat a platinum ring with a triangular cut sapphire and ruby placed end to end to look like a multi-coloured diamond. If those looking at the ring had been able to get close in, then they would have seen a repeated phrase etched into the stones. _Memento Mori._

The man ignored the lift and instead walked the stairs two at a time until he reached the middle floor of the hotel. That the room that was his goal sat in the very centre of the hotel was a fact he was keenly aware of. He knocked on the door with his knuckles and didn't have to wait long before the plain barrier was opened to reveal a tall man with short cropped black hair and round glasses the green-eyed man was well familiar with. The one in the room was dressed in a well-tailored suit that screamed Old Money.

"Mr Peverell," the suit nodded and opened the door, stepping aside to allow the man entrance without actually saying any words. The man smirked, a look that both made him look that much younger and that much more filled with life. The look the other man gave Peverell was one he had experienced since he turned eleven. It was usually followed by the same phrase from multiple lips.

 _You look just like your father. Only you have your mother's eyes._

"Mr Giles," the man nodded back as he entered the room, ignoring the wards that rippled around him to test his intentions. "I must say, I never expected to receive your owl for a meeting."

Giles closed the door and walked into the room, allowing his back to be to Peverell as a sign of trust. A heavy sigh filled the air as Giles found himself in a straight back chair to look up at Peverell.

"Especially since you _actually_ addressed it to Evans."

"That is the name I knew your mother held," Giles answered with a depreciating shrug that didn't ease the tension evident in the other's stance.

"I have my mother's journals," Peverell answered in a clipped, no-nonsense tone. "Rupert Edmund Giles, Slytherin, Head Boy a year ahead of James Potter. Known for falling into the Dark Arts, _hard_ , only to vanish off the face of what the British Wizarding world considers Earth. Except for my mother being able to keep track of you in the mundane world and knowing when you were pulled back into your father's job as a Watcher. One of the only Dark Slytherins of that generation who never became a Death Eater. Also known and still feared to this day as the Ripper."

Giles stared at the name known as Peverell as he ran off his brief history. His eyes had taken a dark, dangerous gleam that didn't faze Peverell as he had finished.

"My turn," Giles sneered in a way that reminded Peverell of his old Potions tutor. "Harry James Potter, son of James Charlus and Lily Jasmine Potter, made an orphan the All Hallows Eve of his second year, lived a childhood no one should only to return to the Wizarding World as a hero. By all accounts fought and defeated a basilisk at twelve, the youngest ever Tri-Wizard Champion at fourteen, trained and led a group of school children into the Department of Mysteries at fifteen and defeated a Dark Lord truly worth the name before he turned eighteen. Master Auror, Lord Potter, Black, Peverell, Slytherin and any daughter could take up the mantle of Le Fey or Ravenclaw if they wished. The only man in recent history to become a prisoner of the Gringotts goblins only to go on to become a Friend of the Nation."

"So we know each other," Harry merely stated when his history had been carted out. Not that he was one to throw stones.

"We do."

"What is it you want, Mr Giles?"

"Do you know what brought me from the edge of the Dark Arts?"

"No," Harry confessed with a slight shake of the head. "My mother's true journals are each encrypted with a separate code that has multiple variations throughout the books in question."

"That sounds like Lily," Giles sighed, showing his exhaustion and world-weariness for the first time. He pulled off his glasses to clean them with his Slytherin silver ties. "She arrived at my door one day and told me about Severus Snape, how he had fallen so far that he had become a Death Eater only to pass on a piece of information that then set the monster in question after her. She wanted me to understand the consequences of the road I was travelling. I listened."

"She saved your life," it wasn't a question.

"She did," Giles nodded as he replaced his spectacles. "And now I find myself in need of asking her son to do something similar."

Harry merely raised an eyebrow and waited.

"I am a Watcher, Mr Peverell," Giles explained and Harry realised there was a very good reason why the man was using that specific title of his. "But I am not like the Council. I will not sacrifice the children under my care for the Greater Good of humanity."

Whether Giles knew it or not, he had just pushed enough of Harry's buttons to be half-way agreeable.

"Explain. Now," he growled.

And so Harry heard about the Slayers, how there was only ever one who was supposed to be isolated from her peers in order to become a better weapon against the Dark. And how the current Slayer had friends, a family in more than blood who supported her only for things to become more dangerous with each passing year.

"I need someone who has been through what they've been through," Giles admitted with a heavy sigh. "Someone who can help stop what I see coming towards them at the rate things are going."

"Death."

"Death," Giles nodded. Harry understood far more than the man might have realised. Or not as he _had_ been a Slytherin.

"Give me a week to get my affairs in order and I'll meet you in Sunnydale," Harry answered after a few minutes consideration. It would be plenty of time to tap into his connection with the Unspeakables to find out if what he had been told was true.

The relief in Giles' eyes didn't slow Harry down as he Apparated out of the room, breaking the very wards that were supposed to stop such an action.


	9. Out of Prison and Into the War

**AN: This story is inspired by a number of works on this site. It's a trained Dimension-hopping Harry who finds his particular skills being highly needed even if people would deny the fact.**

* * *

They had turned him into a weapon. _Dumbledore_ had turned him into a weapon.

It started the night Harry Potter had raced off to rescue his innocent, blood ritual claimed godfather only to find out it was all a trick. A trick by the Dark Lord and his sycophants to force Harry into retrieving a prophecy orb from the Department of Mysteries' Hall of Prophecies.

Six teenagers, five of who he had personally trained in Defence Against the Dark Arts, had kicked the arse of the snake-faced bastard's inner circle. Sure, they'd come away with scars and nightmares but they'd held their own. The only casualty that night had been the man who Harry had been desperate to save. The man who wasn't even in danger until he came racing to their rescue.

Sirius Orion Black.

Albus Dumbledore had used all his manipulative skills to stab a mourning fifteen-year-old child in the heart and soul. He revealed the contents of the Prophecy, a whisper from Fate stating only Harry could defeat the most feared Dark Lord in British history, and then coaxed the guilt Harry felt about Sirius' death by making sure to explain in excruciating detail how learning Occlumency would have saved Harry from the vision itself.

It had taken some time before Harry was able to push past the manipulations to question just why Dumbledore had not told him about such a threat before Sirius died. It took ten minutes with the Unspeakables to find the answer.

Harry had seen a classmate and friend killed, had been involved in a Dark ritual to bring back the man who had killed his parents and now had been nudged into setting up the very situation for his godfather's death. Dumbledore seized on all of these things to begin training him against Voldemort. Alastor Moody, the traitorous werewolf Remus Lupin, Dumbledore himself and other people they called in took the next two years turning him into their weapon. They attempted to strip away the small fragments of humanity and personality the Dursleys hated and had tried to beat and blooded out of him.

They had him for the entire summer. September first saw Luna Lovegood take a good, long look into the eyes of her friend. September second saw the Unspeakables show up at Hogwarts to save his sanity.

They took him under their wing. Using a mix of time-turners far more powerful than anything Hermione could conceive and duplication spells to put Harry in two places at once, he went quickly learned what real training and camaraderie truly were.

Harry hid his second life from all those attempting to destroy him. He had found a family. A family who healed his mental scars and taught him _true_ Occlumency rather than the mind raping Snape had put him through. They had also accepted him as one of their own rather being the Boy-Who-Lived.

Dumbledore and his jailers looked to make him a weapon, the Unspeakables took his passed on information and between them, they destroyed the Death Eaters and Riddle within three years of him being set loose.

Harry had also known the cure to the withering curse that ultimately killed Dumbledore but declined to share, then personally stabbed Lupin in the heart with a Potter silver dagger and cursed Moody into a puddle of blood and gore using only Black spells.

No one betrayed the Potters and Blacks. _No one_.

And then the Ministry turned on him. They called him up to the Auror offices, hit him with dozens of stunners and dumped him in a secret, magic suppressing cell.

Harry had no idea how long he had been in the specially designed cell. The rune and charm work was created in order to cause the prisoner's magic into a painful feedback if they attempted anything. He had merely smirked when he came up with a solution. Harry Potter, Boy-Who-Lived and Man-Who-Won, had simply stood in the middle of the cell and released his magic.

Initially, it had been only been a little spark and then it gradually grew, his magic fighting against the cell while his entire life of pain and misery kept him from crying out. His magic clashed with the cell and fed back into his body, overloading his core as it looked to recharge what he was releasing. Harry's eyes glowed with power as slowly, subtly, he turned his magic on himself.

The Unspeakables had told Harry that the only reason he survived the Dursleys was that his magic kept him alive and healed him. He was using the same principle. When the guards came to supply him with food, they could only stare in shock and fear at the maelstrom of power that surrounded their prisoner.

By the time Harry had entered Hogwarts his magic instinctively knew how to heal his body and fight off pain. The magical feedback loop that now threatened to destroy him simply pushed that ability to overdrive.

He was rebuilding his body one painful cell at a time. Becoming a brand new man.

Harry had no idea how long he lived in the Suppressing Cell, surviving on nothing more than his magic and sheer stubborn will before he heard an explosion and felt a familiar tingle within his Occlumency shields. It was a link that all of the warrior branches of the Unspeakables had to connect themselves to their team. Harry smirked. His family had finally come.

The sounds of fighting filled the air even above the crackling of magic in the Cell. Shouts, screams and more explosions followed until the bars of his prison revealed the grey shrouds of an Unspeakable attack team.

"You should have called ahead," Harry joked, forcing himself to speak no matter how badly his underused throat protested. "I would have put the kettle on."

"You've been a hard bastard to find, Lightning," the unmistakable voice of Head Unspeakable Croaker announced from somewhere in the hallway. "It took us a bit before we realised this had been planned for years."

"Dumbledore set all this up as soon as he started your training," the one in front of his door continued. Nightshade, Harry's second in command and occasional friends with benefits. He could see her dark eyes from beneath the hood and his heart skipped at the level of fear and worry he saw in them. "You were never supposed to walk away from the war, Harry."

Harry could only sigh and then wince as the feedback sparked painfully. The news wasn't something that surprised him.

"Damn it, Lightning," Croaker snapped. "I can't shut the field down with you doing your mojo."

"And I can't stop it now, Grumpy," Harry winced again and realised that his boss was working on the rune control panel. "There's only one way out of this place."

"That could kill you," the man moved alongside Nightshade and it was obvious he had come to the same conclusion.

"Get behind a shield and smash the panel," Harry demanded. "Treat it like an electronic lock. Hopefully, I can funnel the magic somewhere."

The two Unspeakables shared a look and sighed. They weren't going to be leaving without him.

"Aim up, Lightning," Nightshade said as she stepped back, eyes locking with his own. "It's only politicians and arseholes above us."

Harry gave her his lopsided grin. Croaker took that distraction to activate his shield stone and blast the rune panel into the stone age. The magic of the Cell blazed as it lost all semblance of being contained. Harry roared in pain as it coursed through his body, threatening to destroy his mind and core. His two friends looked on in horror and then shock as the aura surrounding Harry blazed and took on a life of its own, reaching out to capture every stray bolt of magic the Cell was giving off. The man inside straightened his body, locking his back as he stared at the ceiling, and threw his arms up to release everything in one giant raw blast.

"GO TO HELL, DUMBLEDORE!" He roared, the magical release destroying the cell, half the corridor it was connected to and three floors of the Ministry owned building above. When Croaker and Nightshade dug themselves out of the rubble and found his body, Harry had once again done the impossible and survived.

He was unconscious but he once again lived through something that would have killed anyone else.

.

.

oOoOo


	10. Originality

**ANs - I've had a number of HP/Vampire Diaries crossover ideas and decided that a lot could easily be merged into one story rather than having many similar plot points spanning numerous stories. So here's the idea of what happens when a post-War Harry finds out he's a little big more than the Average Joe.**

* * *

 **Key:**

"Words"

 _Thoughts / "emphasis" / Title of Books or spells used_

 _~~Parseltongue~~_

¬¬Foreign Language¬¬

" _ **Magical language"**_

 _1998 – Gringotts_

The end of the Second Blood War was as dark and depressing as it was uplifting. Those who hadn't lost too much or hadn't been engaged in the battles that raged sporadically since the Dark Lord's rebirth, found themselves eager to celebrate and go on with their lives. So eager in fact that a good group didn't even bother learning a lesson from the War.

For those who had been forced into the very centre of the conflict, or their loved ones who watched them bleed and sometimes die, things weren't as easy, but they were trying. The damage to Hogwarts had been fixed with the country's very saviour there in the mud and dust doing everything physically and magically possible to make sure the school that had once felt like his home was back to her former glory.

It was the saviour who found himself most at sea when compared to those around him. Hermione Granger was going back to Hogwarts and wanted him to pick up his studies, Ron Weasley was heading into the Auror Corps and expecting his best mate to be by his side, and Ginny Weasley was getting frustrated waiting for her boyfriend to pick up the relationship as it was before Dumbledore's funeral.

Harry Potter loved them all but had lost all connections to those near his physical age. He had his own responsibilities to focus on and a different Path to walk. Out of all the people Harry was close to, it had been Luna Lovegood who knew. She came to him on his birthday party – that everyone had decided to throw regardless of Harry's thoughts on the matter – and simply patted him on the cheek.

"Check with the goblins when the time comes, Harry. They'll help you go where you need to."

And then the flighty blonde had skipped away to find herself some pudding.

Almost the same day that Tom Marvolo Riddle, Lord Voldemort, was killed, Harry had gone to his half-goblin Charms Professor and explained everything about the Horcruxes, the hunt for said soul containers, and then the deal and betrayal of Griphook the goblin to get at the one inside Bellatrix Lestrange's vault. Filius Flitwick had been horrified by the tale, especially when he learnt one of his favourite students had a soul piece in his infamous scar. The little man's swearing would have made Hermione faint if his information that goblins knew easier and safer ways to remove soul shards hadn't done the deed first. Needless to say, Harry cursed the day Albus Dumbledore was born.

While Gringotts would have taken a financial sum to balance out the physical damage, they were stunned when Harry Potter, a _wizard_ , rolled up his sleeves and became a goblin's dogsbody during the entire process of fixing the damage the dragon's freedom caused. No task was too demeaning, no strain too much as the young man poured as much sweat, blood, and magic into a goblin's bank as he did Hogwarts. While the British magicals considered it a publicity stunt, the only the goblins and Harry knew just how much their most powerful client had done for the Nation.

So, when Harry's magic began to go haywire and his body showing rapid signs of changing into a healthier one, including his scars fading oldest first, he had headed straight to Gringotts and requested a full work over by their healers. A request they were almost eager to comply with.

"Well friend DaggerClaw, what new insanity is my life going to involve now?"

And that was another thing that meant the Nation would never betray Harry Potter. Goblins preferred to be called their titles as they were, after all, ranks each goblin had earned off the own hard work. Harry's response was simple; there is no higher position than to be someone he trusted and called friend.

"It is as you say, Lord Harry," the Potter Account Manger rumbled with his disturbing chuckle. "Your body is maturing and healing at an accelerated rate. Our Healers expect three months before you have no trace of a scar or injury except the basilisk bite."

"Is that what's causing this then? A delayed reaction from the venom and tears?"

DaggerClaw sat back and eyed his client. Gone was the frail, shy boy who entered Gringotts the first time and who was kept from his grasp by Dumbledore's machinations. Instead, it was a powerful man who looked back. A man whose power would reach heights none of those who worshipped or hated him could comprehend.

"I have taken the liberty of having Account Manager Bodrig collect the Lady Andromeda and your ward, Lord Harry. I hope to explain everything once they arrive."

Harry sighed and closed his eyes. He had numerous accounts with Gringotts from his Houses and had requested the goblins who had oversaw them to remain in charge, coordinating all his finances through a committee. It was a unique situation that allowed the Account Managers to keep the prestige of the accounts while not weakening Harry's financial situation. "Ah, one of _those_."

"I'm afraid so, Lord Harry."

The two friends filled the time going through the Potter finances. Harry pulled a handful of outstanding debts when he heard the goblins had been told The-Man-Who-Conquered wouldn't allow them to hurt his fellow wizards. The money was immediately switched to business who worked hard but had been hit harder by the War, extending their loans at easier rates for the first decade to aid the struggling families. He also moved more money into the Mundane world's economics, investing heavily in technology for the home and personal use. Game machines, personal computers, and telecoms were all heavily invested in while notes were taken for the Black Account to dive into the production side of the same industries. Harry had done the very same with Apothecaries and the Potions industry in the magical world and the goblins loved him for it.

Their plans to financially take over the world were stopped when the office door opened. Harry was out of his chair the moment he saw the raven-haired woman carrying a small bundle. He took Andromeda in one arm, kissing her cheek in such a tender way that would cause Hermione's eyebrows to raise in suspicion, and nodded to the goblins who accompanied the last remaining Blacks.

"Chief Ragnuk, Friend Bodrig, Friend Barchoke, I greet thee and thank thee for ensuring the safety of my family."

Chief Ragnuk, leader of the Northern European goblins gave a fearsome smile while the other two goblins nodded as Harry led Andromeda to his chair. Ragnuk's guards took up position around the room while Harry got his family settled.

It two magicals in the room were another reason for Harry's distancing from his friends. While they were saddened by the deaths of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks, his friends often forgot about the orphaned child left behind when planning theirs and Harry's future. Something that enraged the powerful teen every time.

The wizard in question stood at parade rest behind Andromeda and there was no mistaking the protective and possessive stance for anything but what it was. The goblins could smell the subtle scent of the two on each other's skins and while Andi Tonks had died the day her daughter did, Andromeda Black lived and somewhat thrived through the love and devotion of her Head of House.

"Better rip the blade out, Chief Ragnuk," Harry said, setting the tone of the meeting. "Let's get the bleeding done with so I can start stitching my life back together again."

Goblin chuckles rumbled in stereo as all present enjoyed the young man's interpretations of their many sayings.

"The Healers were very thorough, Harry," Ragnuk began and received two nods in return. Andromeda had agreed that the goblins would know a lot more than she did even with her decades of experience working in St. Mungo's. "As you know, an inheritance test would show your fathers as James Potter and Sirius Black due to the late Lord Black's blood adoption of you when you were born. What surprised us was there is a _third_ father. Elijah Mikaelson."

The Blacks frowned at the news. Harry wondered who the man was and why no one had mentioned him while Andromeda worked her mind furiously for while the name was so familiar.

"Mikaelson, Mikaelson," she mumbled, clearly heard by those in the room. "Why do I know that name?"

"The Original Vampires, Miss Black," Bodrig spoke up. "The Blacks have had a number of dealings with them down the years."

"Of course," Andromeda's eyes widened as she remembered a journal detailing everything her family had learnt about the infamous group. The updating book wasn't much but she was sure it was more than anyone outside of the Originals had.

"Vampires?" Harry's eyebrow raised in question and Andromeda turns to look up at him.

"You remember how there are multiple types of the same being or creature, just as there are multiple types of those who use magic?" He nodded to her question. Sirius had made sure to teach him things he should have known but didn't and this was one of the first. It was a little-known fact that the goblins and dwarfs were really cousins rather than different species. Something no one human was supposed to learn. "The Original Family are the progenitors of their type of vampires. They were created around the time of Hogwarts being founded."

"So not only am I a direct descendent of Salazar's first born, I always have the blood of a first-born vampire in my veins?" His blink was the only sign of surprise Harry could muster at the news. A cough brought the magicals attention back to their hosts.

"It is not quite as simple as that, Lord Harry," DaggerClaw explained and smirks were abound at Harry's 'of course it isn't.' "A blood adoption, even by a vampire, would leave residue in your magic. You have such a tint in yours from Sirius Black's adoption. What they have come to believe is that Mister Mikaelson healed your mother with his blood at the very early stages of her pregnancy before there would have been a third heartbeat for him to hear. The Nation are familiar with this Original and know he would not risk his blood creating another dhampir."

"You're talking about the Daywalker," Andromeda observed, receiving a nod from the goblin before turning back to Harry. She was in her Professor mode that always brought more life to her dark purple eyes. "The Daywalker is a vampire hunter who travels through England and Europe hunting vampires. His mother was turned as she gave birth to him and that made him a half-human, half-vampire."

"And you know this because?" He couldn't help asking.

"The Blacks have used The Blade to kill some vampires when they got too big for their position and started making demands of our family," she shrugged, a ghost of a smirk curling her lips at Harry's amused smirk. "But something tells me we wouldn't be having this conversation if it was _just_ that. Please, Chief Ragnuk, what is going on?"

"You're right, Miss Black, it is something more. Elijah Mikaelson's blood infused with Harry's very genetics. He is truly the Original's son as he is the son of your two cousins. The Healers believe the abomination trapped behind Harry's scar kept this inheritance from showing and now that block is gone, these blocked powers are reacting with his body and magic."

"My friend, you are not usually one to beat around the bush," Harry interrupted, eyes darkening as he saw how nervous the goblins where. "I will face this as I have everything else, with Gryffindor bravery and Slytherin tactics. What is happening to me?"

"Your Family Magics are combining, Harry," Ragnuk sighed, and the two humans saw a weight on the goblin's shoulders. The shocked faces of the others proved this was as unusual as they thought. "The Nation have Mikaelson blood on standby for security purposes and have tested yours against theirs. The phoenix tears and basilisk venom are enhancing all the attributes of the Original genetics and the Mikaelson Family Magic is merging with your Houses. Add in that you are Death's Champion and not even our Healers know where this ends."

There was silence to the proclamation and Andromeda whitened in fear for the man who had saved her from the darkness the deaths of her Ted and Nymphadora. Harry had found her unable to even look after the very grandson she was holding, and she felt the despair approaching at the mere thought of losing Harry to whatever was happening to him.

"So," Harry said, his voice neutral with no hint of what he was thinking leaking through. "I held off a hundred Dementors with a single Patronus at thirteen and equalled a Dark Lord so dangerous this country _still_ can't say his name even when I realised the truth of his Mundane origins. I'm assuming this is happening because everything was held back by the soul shard?"

Three nods gave him the answer and he answered the only question that mattered. "Teddy here is a werewolf-Metamorphmagus mix. What are the risks of me blood adopting him?"

Andromeda almost fell out of her chair as she spun around to gap at her Lord Black, her jaw dropping in comical fashion at the question. He stared deep into her eyes, into the face that was so much similar and yet different to Bellatrix Lestrange and she knew this was not simply Harry Potter talking.

"All roads lead back to Peverell and that's the name we'll take. We'll leave this place and its dark memories and take the good ones with us. Teddy will be raised loved, cherished, and knowing everything about his families. We will settle when it is time for him to attend school and I will raise down hell upon anyone who dares to think of harming him."

A cough from DaggerClaw broke their gazes and Andromeda realised that she had no intention of saying no.

"Your comment linking Slytherin and the Mikaelson was closer than you thought Lord Peverell. It was a secondary branch of House Peverell who the Viking Mikael married into. When Salazar called upon House Peverell to return to these shores, some did so while others went with the newly weds to America where your Family Magic was used to create the Original Family. That area was looked over by the Peverells who helped found the town of Mystic Falls on top of the original village. Your name opens many doors there and it is known that the Original Family sometime return to the place of their birth."

"So that's where we can settle until Elijah turns up and I can meet the man who saved my mother. Now, what about adopting Teddy?"

"I had the foresight to ask the Healers, Harry," Ragnuk answered before the wizard began losing his temper. "They believe he might become something new, a mixture of everything the two of you are, but there will be no negative reactions. That a blood adoption won't cause the young one any problems is all we can guarantee considering the wide and wild nature of magics involved."

"Use the Black Transference Potion," Andromeda commanded, and Harry frowned at the unfamiliar name. "It's a potion that allows a baby's magical talent to be passed up to the parent for them to then passed down to any siblings. If I or my sisters were born with Nymphadora's talent at shifting, then that's what our parents would have done. It will also make you the dominate male genetics for Teddy. You'll become his father in all things."

She didn't give Harry a chance to speak. A single finger pressed against his lips and her pain filled eyes kept him from trying.

"My daughter Floo called me in tears because that mangy wolf was too locked in his own self-hatred to love her enough to not disappear once he found out she was pregnant. Don't think I don't know that her happy smile when he returned was somehow down to you."

Harry nodded once and then looked up at the waiting goblins. He didn't need to speak, they all read the look in his eyes.

.

.

OoOoO

.

.

 _2008 – Mystic Falls_

The 'house' was finally complete. After ten years of travelling and planning, the Peverell Manor was completed exactly as the blueprints demanded, right down to the very inch. Gringotts had refused the manor to be touched by human hands and used liberal glamours other magic to hide the fact that goblins and dwarfs were working side-by-side in creating a building that rivalled anything in the Old World. Lord Arcturus Harrison Peverell, Harry to some, had spent every Full and New Moon charging up the wardstones that would protect the property. He poured as much of his frightening amounts of magic into the stones every fourteen days for a decade before they were finally buried in strategic places. The collapse of even half the stones wouldn't damage the protections surrounding Peverell Manor and it now boasted a defence matching Hogwarts in its prime.

The Manor would pass as a purely Mundane place of residence, if not overly opulent in design, but it was anything but. Almost a living magical thing, there were books and mystical items within its halls that could topple governments and make certain Ministries extremely paranoid.

The decade had been good for Lord Peverell, his partner in travels Andromeda Nymphadora Peverell, and their son/grandson Siri Theodore Peverell. They had been across the globe more than once learning all they could about the Mundane world and all its hidden sides. The family had been forced to relocate early only a few times in the ten years, their hunters never getting close enough to be a concern. There was one truth in the world, whatever part you lived in, and that was money talked and a person can't move about too much before needing some. That the premier banking institution in the magical world was looking out for the Peverells meant that they were always on the watch for suspicious activity in the country the family were staying in.

Until finally they were ready to settle down and await the visit of a thousand-year-old vampire. The Peverells were enthusiastically accepted by the supernatural-aware humans of Mystic Falls once vervain was drunk and they were seen outside in the sun for days on end.

After all, how could the ancient family be dangerous when they weren't vampires?


	11. The Nameless King

**AN: The health issues continue to plague me and keep me from doing anything too productive. As such, I thought I'd throw this out there for all of you as a way of showing that I haven't disappeared nor have I given up writing.**

 **My recovery has seen me _FINALLY_ give the Dark Souls series a try and I've been enjoying it immensely. As such, this is something I smashed out and is an idea I really want to work on when I get the chance. Lily's ritual to save Harry and Rose (younger sister) invoked the Phoenix Force only for the Potters to be out when Riddle attacked. The Phoenix saved the kids and then spirited Harry away to act as a champion in another world...as Gwyn's firstborn! Harry was the Nameless King, acted as Solaire to aid the player in DS 1 and then was secretly Straid in DS 2.**

 **The events of DS 1 happen somewhat differently in this story. The First Flame was actually a part of the Phoenix Force (the first Phoenix of that world ripped apart by the Everlasting Dragons) and it was Harry's job to influence events to bring all the pieces back together or free the phoenix's essence from the fires. Certain events in DS were done by Harry rather than the player character but all that would be explored when this gets turned into a story. As is, enjoy and do excuse any typos/errors.**

* * *

The Nameless One

"The mystery of why you wanted Fawkes' tears and feather all those years ago has been solved," the old man mused as he watched the red-headed woman place a phoenix tear soaked feather inside a summoning circle drawn of her blood. Their heavy tone carried Albus Dumbledore's unease at what he observed.

"It worked then, it will work now," Lily Potter stated, her voice hitching with the pain and guilt she had carried for fourteen years.

The first ritual had been perfect, the deal with the powerful being she had called had been struck and she had no qualms with giving her life for those of her children. Only their enemy had attacked while Lily and James were out of their Fidelius hidden cottage and there had been no chance for her to pay her price. The Potters had returned to a ruined Godric's Hollow, a destroyed Voldemort and a missing Harry. Baby Rose had been declared the Girl-Who-Vanquished while Harry was the Boy-Who-Vanished, titles that never failed to make Lily feel sick every time she heard them. She was sure she had messed something up and Harry had paid her price.

"Are you sure about this, Lils?" James asked for the umpteenth time and Lily gritted her teeth to keep from snapping at him. She had never been surer of anything in her life.

"To be fair," Remus Lupin answered for her, standing next to the other Marauder Sirius Black. "I don't think Fawkes would have consented if this was anything Dark."

The phoenix in question trilled an agreement. The ritual was being performed on the grounds of Potter Manor and the magical bird was perched on a nearby table. It had almost eagerly given away its tears and feather when Lily had asked and then decided to bring the Sorting Hat to watch with neither giving any satisfactory answer as to why.

"Not everything dangerous is Dark," James muttered as his wife finished the last touches. It was two days after their daughter had participated in the final task of the Tri-Wizard Tournament as a fourth, unwilling, competitor. Two days since she had been forced to watch her boyfriend Cedric Diggory die at the wand of Alecto Carrow before then being used in a ritual to give Voldemort a new body. Rose was still in Hogwarts' Hospital Wing recovering and he was secretly glad she wasn't there to witness her mother's insanity.

Lily sent them all a scathing look that reminded the men of the woman she used to be before her heart was crushed by Harry's disappearance. She turned back to the ritual circle and began a strangely melodious chanting. Those listening almost instantly forgot the words, but they would forever remember the tune they were sung in. It was a tune that strengthened the heart but chilled the mind as though the person hearing it was experiencing both birth and death at the same time. The air thickened, growing warmer until sweat beaded on temples and feet were nervously shuffled. Fawkes suddenly trilled, adding his own music to the ritual and then there was a roar of flames inside the circle. The fire seemed to shift form, sometimes taking that of a woman who could have been Lily's twin, other times being a giant bird of flames from legend.

 _ **You Call Us Again.**_

The voice was both male and female, old and young, and sounded like that of a lifelong best friend and a most hated rival all at once. The Marauders were dumbfounded at what they were watching while Dumbledore's jaw had actually dropped at seeing the long-forgotten ritual actually being used.

"Please," Lily begged, repeating words she had spoken to the being. "My daughter is in danger. The danger is back, and I don't know how to protect her. I'll do anything to keep her safe!"

James shifted as though to move towards his wife, no liking the desperation he was hearing in her voice, only to feel an iron grip on his arm keeping him in place. He turned to see the steel-blue eyes of Dumbledore staring back. The serious gaze told him beyond words just how much of a Bad Idea it was to interrupt what was happening.

 _ **The Price Was Paid. We Give Back What Was Taken. The Nameless Protector Did His Duty. Blood For Blood. Life For Life. The Circle Closes.**_

The living flame flared, and Lily cried out as she stumbled back into James' strong arms. For a brief moment it seemed as though the very sun had landed in front of them as the light and heat grew only to cut out before it became too painful. The group blinked wildly and more than one wondered if the light had somehow caused them to hallucinate.

The grass was complete burnt away, taking the ritual circle with it, and in the group stared in shock at the sight before them. A grey-blue dragon-like creature, larger than the Hungarian Horntail that Rose had been forced to face in the tournament, stared at them with far too much intelligence in its dark eyes. It had a skinny body and its front limbs had what appeared to be feathers in its wings rather than the leather bands of skin they were used to seeing. The great beast released thick fog from the two nostrils on its beaked snout and more seemed to gather at its back claws.

Yet despite the fear that the unusual creature caused, it was nothing to the puzzling sight of a man appearing kneeling within the protected cocoon of the beat's body. Lightening danced over the man's body and strange clothing and along the large and deadly looking blade that was buried into the ground. The blade was huge, matching the size of a great sword, yet the hilt was as long as a person's arm. To Lily, the weapon appeared to be a deadly mix of spear and sword.

The man's head was hidden by a huge mop of ash hair. His back was heavy as though the means of appearing had taken great effort and it gave them a chance to take in the strange clothing he wore. It appeared to be a mix of cloth, scales, and metal and both it and the weapon appeared to have seen a lot of use despite their polished and clean surfaces. Lily tried to pull herself out of the painful grip of James' arms, but he wasn't willing to let her go with the dangerous creature mere feet from them. The shuffling of their struggle somehow caught the new arrival's attention and his head shot up, revealing the fact that the ash hair seemed to be part of a crown with giant points. But the group didn't register this once they saw the intense gaze glaring at them. A gaze from eyes the same colour as Lily's.

The newcomer moved faster than any of them had ever seen, ripping his weapon from the ground, and pointing it at them in a defensive position. The lightening increased, running across his body and the weapon, and even jumped to the dragon-like creature who shifted as though preparing to attack. The movement had the right wing shift enough to reveal a huge grey wolf whose teeth were revealed in a vicious snarl and looked ready to lunge.

The man barked something in an unknown language. The Marauders had the wands ready and Sirius was just about to let loose a spell when Fawkes released a powerful song that shattered the tense atmosphere. The warrior turned to the bird and instantly settled, lowering his large sword as the song washed through them. His shift in posture instantly settled both the strange dragon and the dire-wolf sized canine. The shocks kept coming when the warrior next spoke in melodic tones that mimicked Fawkes' trills.

The group stood dumbfounded as the two engaged in a strange conversation and could only watch on as the warrior appeared to become more at ease the longer it went on. The tones he produced moved from demanding to puzzlement and finally to curiosity, allowing them to follow the mood of what was being said if not the actual meaning. It took a handful of minutes before the warrior finally nodded and stabbed the weapon back into the ground before raising a cloth-wrapped hand to his head to remove the large crown. Thick black hair tumbled down around his sharp features as his other hand pulled down the thick cloth that covered the lower part of his face. The man revealed sent even more shock through the group at the obvious similarities between himself and the Potters.

"Harry?" Husband and wife whispered together. The man glazed at them with a puzzled expression before sending another melody at Fawkes whose reply seemed to be the cue for the Sorting Hat to wake up.

"My turn now eh, Sparky?" The headpiece chuckled, causing the phoenix to give a quick squawk of annoyance. The man chuckled as though understanding the byplay and held out a hand. The Hat vanished in a flash of sparks and appeared in his palm. It chuckled until the warrior placed it upon his head. "Oh dear, dear, dear. No wonder I was asked to help. Far too much going on here, far too much time unneeded. No this won't do at all. Not for someone who has the loyalty of Helga, the brilliance of Rowena, Sal's talents and bravery enough to make Godric weep."

"Hat?" Albus croaked and no one thought to laugh at the strangled voice the old wizard produced after everything that had occurred.

"Hm? What is it Headmaster? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Yes Hat, but _what exactly_ are you doing?"

"Teaching Harry here to speak English and catching him up on the history of our world," the Hat snarked. "What else would I be doing on his head? He's a bit too old to be Sorted even if he would have been the greatest student to walk the halls."

Harry said something in his strange language that caught the Hat's attention and its tip bent so it could look down at him. "Are you sure you want to remember that? I don't mind helping to dull the edges."

"No…" Harry said, obviously struggling to use the English he was being taught through the Hat's magic. "It needed…to be done. Smough had to be put down and that other…that was my brother's illusion, not the man I trained."

"What about?"

"Leave it. Please. My Father was a good man once."

"I understand," Hat replied, its voice heavy with emotions that confused the others.

Lily had managed to free herself from James' arms and slowly edged her way closer, practically ignoring the large dragon and wolf who watched her approach. The latter growled once only to be silenced by a strange word.

"Sif."

He watched her carefully, green eyes staring into green eyes. Lily's hand raised, trembling as it reached out to touch someone she had lost all hope of ever seeing again. "Harry?"

"Hey mum."


End file.
